Visual Art Projects

‘Our curators were deeply moved, showcasing the best in contemporary artistic practice. It’s a true honour to recognise and celebrate your work, as part of this year’s Aesthetica Art Prize.

You are part of a remarkable network of national and international artists who are pushing the boundaries of contemporary art and driving important conversations forward.’

2026 Aesthetica Art Prize

Red Room by Sam Joseph

A design plan for an art installation called 'sam joseph, the red room' showing layout details, seating arrangements, and visual elements in red, black, and white colors.

The Red Room

Curated project includes the screening of FALLEN and a VR installation projection art work experience. An Artist Book In/visible houses visuals of all 5 parts of the project, sits on a plinth.

At its centre sits The Red Bench, inspired by global campaigns, which aims to raise awareness of domestic and family violence in public spaces.

The Red Shoes, with many symbolic connotations, is a homage to Mexican artist Elina Chauvet, Zapatos Rojos, whose installation in 2009 in a square in Ciudad Juarez, in honour of the murder of her sister by her husband, created an international awareness initiative.

In/visible, rejects the victim-blaming and misrepresentation often found in art, film, and media. The Red Room is a space for honouring, feeling, remembering, and imagining a world free from violence. It invites connection, collaboration, and collective reflection.

Special thanks to everyone who collaborated across the 5 projects.

  • Close-up of a red poster with black text, mentioning survivors and victims of gender-based violence.

  • Group of people in an art gallery or museum, observing a display or exhibit on a red wall.

  • Virtual reality headset placed on a red stand in a dark room with a red wall and a white informational sheet on the wall.

  • Red exhibition wall with black text reading "in/visible" and dedicated to all survivors and victims of gender-based violence. A virtual reality headset and an open book are displayed on a red pedestal. An artwork of a person with red hair is on the right wall. The poster at the bottom mentions the "in/visible series: FALLEN" and the "AESTHETICA ART PRIZE 2026."

  • Person in gray long-sleeve shirt with straw hat, partial view, on white floor, red fabric or curtain in the background.

  • Part of an open book resting on a black stand against a red background.

  • Close-up of colorful curled paper or ribbon, primarily red with hints of blue and black, in an abstract arrangement.

  • A large flat-screen TV mounted on a red wall, displaying a performance with two dancers in dark costumes and neon lighting effects.

Contemporary art gallery with two large dark and red abstract paintings hanging on white walls. The gallery has a minimalist design with white benches and concrete floors.
A collage of six digital art images with mostly black backgrounds and abstract red and white patterns, some featuring a human face with closed eyes submerged in water or clouds.

screenprints by Sam Joseph

(In)Visibility of the Erasure of Women

InVisibility of the Erasure of Women, emerges from a multi-stage project FALLEN spanning performance, film, VR and installation, developed here into a set of distorted screen prints, as an open constellation within space. Beginning in visceral choreographies of resistance, the work confronts the epidemic of fatal violence against women and the silencing of their stories. By reworking photographic stills into fractured, analogue television-like images, the prints echo both the distortion of media narratives and the numbing repetition of femicide statistics.

With governments failing and misogyny rising, particularly within younger generations shaped by digital, social media influence. These prints refuse passive representation: instead they embody resilience, and reclamation, extending the campaign for Killed Women into new visual registers. InVisibility of the Erasure of Women, the work exemplifies emergent artistic practices that traverse disciplines and mediums, demanding recognition of realities often erased.

UnWanted Series (WIP)

photography multi projection installation & photolithography

Sam Joseph’s photolithography print, photographic, moving image multi projection installation and audio project, Unwanted, is part of an ongoing series of works through multidisciplinary methodologies and initiatives that examines gender-based violence. This project focuses on women's experiences of unwanted attention and sexual harassment in public spaces. These encounters, often perpetrated by men both groups and individuals, are a societal norm.

News

Sam invited artist Divya Balivada to collaborate in 2025. Her powerful works aligns with this project and the important issues of violence against women for exhibition. Divya utilises automatic drawing for Unwanted, as a response to the experience of the unwanted gaze, the moment when women become aware of being looked at in a way that objectifies them.

Thank you to every woman who took part in the workshops through photography, automatic drawing, and soundscape contributions, sharing their experiences of unwanted attention in public spaces and calling for change to this societal norm, despite new legislation that makes intentionally harassing, alarming, or distressing someone in public places a specific criminal offence.

Invited collaborator in 2026, graphic designer Steve Graham at Element Forty7, contributed digital designed text as part of UnWanted multi-projection installation series.

Exhibition tbc 2026

A young woman with curly hair, wearing headphones, a necklace with a circular pendant, and a leather jacket, implies she is listening to music while sitting outdoors near a cobblestone pathway and stone wall.

photography by Sam Joseph

FALLEN

360• VR & Projection Installation

FALLEN FILM PAGE
Dark room with red lighting, featuring a digital art projection of a human figure and abstract shapes on the walls and ceiling.
Dark room with two red illuminated digital screens displaying abstract red lines and shapes, one on the left wall and another on the right, creating a vivid, immersive visual experience.
Dark room with multiple screens displaying red-tinted images of a person with curly hair.
A dark room with a digital or virtual art installation illuminated in red, featuring a figure on a screen with flowing clothing and abstract swirling shapes.

Cast & Crew

Performers and Choreography: Elizabeth Roberts & Annie Edwards,

Director, Producer, Writer: Sam Joseph.

Director of Photography: Zoran Veljkovic SAS,

Editor: Antonio Ribeiro, Original Music Score: Calvin Calica

Costume Designer: Stella Lam,

Video Projection: Zac Miller-Waugh,

Studio Manager: Rodrigo Canas,

Studio Technician: Gill Dibben,

Camera Assistant: Johanna Tyres

XR: Xanthe Horner

XR: Charlotte Raymen, Connor Reid, Jeane Indriani, XR Lab RCA

Filmed: Technical Studios, Studio Building, RCA, Battersea, London

Team

Behind Closed Doors

Photographic Installation

Sam Joseph photograph, digital print 2024

The connection between violence and inequality signals a systemic devaluation of women’s lives. Despite legislative efforts globally, gender inequality continues due to entrenched patriarchal systems, perpetuating discrimination and violence against women.

Behind Closed Doors highlights the resilience of women and the urgent need to address societal norms that perpetuate gender-based violence and what happens behind closed doors. It draws attention to the strength of survivors and the importance of challenging inequality to build a more just society. While 1 in 3 women face domestic abuse globally, this piece inspires collective action to change the narrative. By confronting these issues, we illuminate the hidden struggles of many and empower communities to create a world free from violence.

A complex digital pattern composed of numerous small, abstract, monochromatic cube-like shapes arranged in layers, creating a geometric mosaic with a sense of depth and three-dimensionality.
  • Reflected image of a person playing a guitar, seen through a glass wall with various pictures or posters. The scene appears to be indoors, possibly in a gallery or studio, with a red strip or artwork on one side.

    The Vanner Gallery

  • Photo of an art gallery wall displaying two framed abstract paintings, with the photo taken at an angle showing the frames and the textured gallery wall.

    The Vanner Gallery

  • Close-up of a printed document showing a black-and-white photograph of a cylindrical pattern and some text with a heading that reads "Samantha Joseph".

    The Vanner Gallery

  • An art gallery with several framed artwork pieces on the white walls, including a black and white abstract art piece, a red artwork with text, and a black-and-white photograph of a person on the beach. There are two white pedestals with sculptures and a small white table with books nearby. Track lighting illuminates the artwork.

    The Graduate Art Show

  • Abstract pixelated artwork with a black frame, hanging on a white wall to the left of a red panel with various symbols, text, and characters.

    The Vanner Gallery

  • A collage of black-and-white images of a building with balconies and glass railings, repeated in a patterned layout.

    The Vanner Gallery

Behind Doors Closed

Installation 6m x 6m

Behind Closed Doors (installation) is a series of life-sized cubic structures containing moving shadows. As viewers navigate around the installation, glimpses of concealed narratives emerge, drawing attention to the realities of violence against women that so often remain hidden from view.

Using light, movement, and architectural form, the work explores the tension between public visibility and private experience. It reflects on the widespread yet often overlooked nature of gender-based violence, while recognising the resilience, resistance, and survival of those affected.

With one in three women worldwide experiencing physical or sexual violence during their lifetime, Behind Closed Doors is both a confrontation and a call to awareness—bringing what is hidden into the light and inviting collective responsibility for change.

Psychogeography of Reflected Temporary Spaces

Print/photopolymer/etching

Psychogeography of Temporary Reflected Spaces centres on ephemeral landscapes that emerge after rainfall, temporary worlds found in puddles, ponds, and other reflective surfaces. These fleeting environments create portals where memory, trauma, and imagination intersect.

Through photography and intaglio printmaking, Sam Joseph examines how such transient spaces become sites for reflection, resilience, and repair. They offer brief yet potent glimpses of selfhood, collective history, and narratives often overlooked or erased.

Positioned as both observation and critique, the work interrogates the structures that shape visibility, safety, and belonging. By reframing these overlooked reflections, Sam emphasise’s the land as an active witness to personal and collective transformation.

Vanner Gallery, Salisbury 2025

Bankside Gallery, Small but Mighty, RE Printmakers, London 2025.

Nighttime black and white photograph of leafless trees with intricate branches, with a person walking along a path at the bottom.
Black and white photograph of a forest with tall, leafless trees and a partially cloudy sky, with an open space in the center.
Black and white photograph of leafless trees reflected in a calm body of water, creating a mirrored image of the sky and branches.
  • Black-and-white photograph of four people viewing a large framed space photograph of stars and trees on an exhibition wall. The photo is taken from behind and shows the top of their heads and shoulders. The setting appears to be an art gallery or museum.

    Bankside Gallery London

  • Photograph of trees with branches extending outward, set against a dark or night sky, with stars visible in the sky.

    RE Printmakers

  • People viewing black and white photographs in an art gallery.

    Bankside Gallery

  • A chalk drawing of a seashell with an arrow struck by an arrow, all on a wooden surface with a brick wall background, and the words "Small but Mighty 2025."

    RE Printmakers

  • A crowded art gallery with numerous framed photographs hanging on the walls and many people engaged in conversation and viewing the artwork.

    Mighty but Small Exhibition

  • A woman with glasses smiling in front of a framed black and white photograph of trees and a reflected cloudy sky.

    Bankside Gallery, London

  • Two women and a man observing framed astrophotography pictures on a gallery wall.

    Bankside Gallery