Through the Artist’s Eye: Art exhibition at Bikaner House

A New Delhi exhibition, "Through the Artist’s Eye," explores visual impairments through art, showcasing works by Stuart Robertson until May 3.

New Delhi: An exhibition based on a 15-month residency at a Delhi eye hospital is on display at Bikaner House’s Centre for Contemporary Arts till May 3, featuring works that attempt to recreate how patients with cataracts, glaucoma and other ailments see the world.

The exhibition is free and on display till May 3. (Photo for representation)

How do you imagine not being able to see? Many might say complete blackness. But even the back of one’s eyelids is an observable sight. Seeing nothing is an entirely different experience.

These are questions artist Stuart Robertson grappled with. Some answers are now on display at his exhibition “Through the Artist’s Eye”.

Robertson began his stay at Dr Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital in Daryaganj in February 2025 and spent 15 months, invited by CEO Umang Mathur to work with children experiencing sight for the first time.

The exhibition features cyanotypes, digital photos, bronze and iron sculptures, and multimedia collages.

“I wanted to elevate what the doctors do there — take it out of the medical context and into the art context,” Robertson told HT.

One work, “Calculating”, is a black-and-white photo of a surgeon mid-procedure. Meeting her gaze, one can almost see the thought process behind her eyes.

Many collages have multiple holes — some circular, some misshapen. Others are blurred and obscured.

“I wanted to represent how people with visual ailments see,” Robertson said.

Rectangular cast iron blocks with semicircles cut into them represent a condition where irises are formed abnormally. Bronze well wheels — in brown, because “most Indians have brown eyes” — stand in a row with multicoloured strips to show interruptions in vision.

“To understand how people with visual impairments experience the world, I would look at my surroundings with one hand over my eye and walk down stairs with my eyes closed,” Robertson said.

Words pasted on the walls ask visitors questions. Under a CCTV camera: “Who looks, from where, and under what conditions?” Near an open doorway: “How do we reconsider vision?” In a far corner: “Not as a neutral faculty, but as something shaped by access, labour, and power?”

Curator Ashish Sahoo said these questions emerged during discussions with co-curator and scenographer Zaarya Chaudhary. “We wanted the viewer to think about the hierarchy and ethics behind hospital work, and an artist working within a hospital.”

All proceeds from sales will go to the hospital.

“When artists say we are contributing to social causes, how much do we actually contribute?” Sahoo said. “India has the largest percentage of eye diseases in the world. The exhibition spreads awareness — not just that a hospital exists for low-cost treatment, but highlighting the great work doctors are doing.”

The exhibition is free and on display till May 3.