Artist of the Month: Bridie Doyle-Roberts
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
Artist of the Month is a feature where we put the spotlight on the incredible work of one of our members.
Our Artist of the Month is Bridie Doyle-Roberts, a multidisciplinary Artist based in Pontypridd whose work involves creative leadership and community building.
After training in Dance she founded Citrus Arts, a circus, dance and outdoor arts charity where she acted as Co-Director for 15 years. In this role she created festival, site-specific and touring theatre productions and developed education and community projects. These included work with Green Man Festival, London Youth Circus, Big Splash, Walk The Plank, Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru, Ballet Cymru, Arts Active, Earthfall, Coleg Cymraeg, NoFitState Circus, Circomedia and Bath Spa University.
In recent years, following a diagnosis of a rare genetic condition that affects her sight, she creates sensory installation artworks with furniture, visual arts, sound and bilingual poetry. Bridie is interested in exploring the human connections with everyday objects and what these items tell of identity, values and culture. The work invites people to sit and experience in a sensory way, helping to make the work accessible to partially sighted people, like herself.
Bridie is an Agent for Change on the Craidd project, based at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama to advocate for a more inclusive and accessible theatre sector to disabled, Deaf and neurodivergent people. Bridie is also a member of the Consortium Cymraeg with Arts Council Wales.
Bridie’s exhibition, Spectrum of Sight, about sight loss is touring this year and next. The exhibition is at on 13th June at Llantarnum Grange from 13 June - 29 August. It will then be at Maesteg Town Hall in February for a week and at Theatr Clwyd from February - April 2027.
Spectrum of Sight
If I didn’t tell you, how would you know how far into the tunnel I’ve gone….
Having discovered she has a degenerative eye condition, Bridie Doyle-Roberts is stepping into the uncertain world of impending blindness.
As a performer and artist, Bridie has used her experience to create an immersive theatrical art installation, Spectrum of Sight, to explore how we see, what we see and what it feels like when the visual world is getting lost in the dark.
Spectrum of Sight explores the impact of sight loss using furniture, poetry and soundscapes. By drawing upon her personal journey, Bridie evokes a sense of danger and uncertainty if you cannot trust what your eyes tell you. Domestic items of chairs and lamps with varying degrees of hazards, and a triple soundscape of bilingual poetry, natural sounds and musical composition (accessed via headsets) creates an intimate and immersive experience where the audience can explore the artworks via touch.
Spectrum of Sight has been created with creative access at its core, meaning that creative solutions have been embedded in the artworks or available online to make the content accessible for visually impaired, Deaf, hard of hearing, and neurodivergent audiences. Some of these included embedded sound, audio described elements, Braille, tactile elements, written words, video and BSL interpreted versions of the soundscapes.
There are dedicated times where a sighted guide or BSL interpreter will be available to communicate with audiences.
Artist Bridie Doyle-Roberts said, “Losing my sight has been a process of grief and loss, acceptance, discovery and a crisis of identity. My work considers how a severely sight impaired person interacts with the world, how much we rely on touch, sound, light and contrast and whether we know what is beyond our fingertips or whether something is or is not what it seems. I hope that people will feel a sense of appreciation about what this experience is like for people like myself and understand that sight is a spectrum and not something that is on or off.”
The artworks are accompanied by a triple soundscape (on silent disco headsets); spoken word poetry by Bridie in Welsh and English, an elemental soundscape of rain bouncing off objects and a dramatic soundscape of trains entering tunnels with cello and disconcerting sound effects created by Composer, Simon McCorry.
Learn more on Bridie's website: https://www.bridiedoyle.co.uk
Audience feedback:
"It was an amazing and powerful experience to move around the exhibition. The poetry and the words helped me to understand and feel empathy towards her situation of losing sight. I would recommend everyone to come and visit the work."
"There were so many unexpected things that made me feel insecure, unconfident and uncomfortable, almost walking into people in the tunnel. An experience to make me think about what it’s like for people with a sight impairment"
Media:
Spectrum of Sight Short documentary Film - By Hugh Griffiths
Video is available with captions in both English and Welsh.
BSL Flyer - By Emily Rose (for Parc Arts performances):
Audio Flyer - English (for Parc Arts performances)
Listen to clips from the Soundscapes here:
List of artists/collaborators and roles:
Lead Artist - Bridie Doyle-Roberts
Composer - Simon McCorry
Poetry - Bridie Doyle-Roberts
Lighting Design - Garrin Clark
Video art - Hugh Griffiths
Assistant Artist - Rebecca Rowlands
Trainee Assistant Artist - Jodie Yates
Carpentry - David Morris
Mentor - Rachel Gadsden
Creative BSL access - Emily Rose
BSL consultant - Heather Williams
Audio description - Billie Ingram-Sofokleus
