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What We Don’t See: A Sensory Rebellion

presented by Diarietou Nasradine Diop

What We Don’t See: A Sensory Rebellion

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What We Don’t See: A Sensory Rebellion explores how art moves beyond the visible, revealing a world perceived through sound, texture, rhythm, and silence. The exhibition questions the dominance of sight in the way we experience and interpret art, reimagining perception as a multisensory field where emotion, material, and memory shape the act of seeing.

Across painting, photography, textile, and sculpture, the participating artists invite audiences to sense rather than simply observe. Thandiwe Muriu’s vivid portraits transform pattern into language, reclaiming visibility and identity through rhythm and color. Nnenna Okore’s organic installations evoke the tactility of breath and renewal. Tommy Motswai’s expressive prints vibrate with sound and human energy, while Mahmoud Bâba Ly’s textured abstractions question movement and direction in uncertain terrains. Raymond Fuyana’s vibrant worlds transform silence into visual rhythm, and Yaay Hawa Fall’s meditative portraits embody the breath between presence and absence. Through Djibril Dramé’s spiritually charged compositions, Isabella Maake’s cyanotypes of invisible space, and April Kamunde’s serene explorations of rest, the exhibition unfolds as a sensory conversation between stillness and resonance, material and void, surface and depth.

At its core, What We Don’t See proposes that art is not confined to what the eye can capture. It gestures toward a collective awareness that perception is a shared and layered experience that unites the senses, dissolves boundaries, and opens space for empathy. In this way, the exhibition becomes both rebellion and invitation.


A call to listen with the eyes closed and to rediscover what presence means beyond vision.

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Banner Artwork Details:

Raymond Fuyana, Toybox III (2024)
Acrylic and oil on canvas, 124 × 180 cm
Courtesy of Guns & Rain Gallery, Johannesburg

Raymond Fuyana, Toybox III (2024), Acrylic and oil on canvas, 124 × 180 cm, Courtesy of Guns & Rain Gallery, Johannesburg.

Rest as Resistance

April Kamunde, Afueni Mdogo Mdogo I (Small Small Relief I), 2024, Oil on canvas, 106 × 80 cm, courtesy of Afriart Gallery.

EXHIBITION CURATOR, DIARIETOU NASRADINE DIOP

Diarietou Nasradine Diop is a Senegalese architectural designer, curator, and artist whose practice bridges architecture, sensory perception, and inclusive design. Her curatorial work explores how art can transcend the dominance of sight by engaging touch, sound, and emotion as vital forms of knowledge and connection.

She is participating in the RMB Latitudes CuratorLab 2025, developing the exhibition What We Don’t See: A Sensory Rebellion, which examines how multisensory experience can transform the ways we perceive and relate to art. Her approach is informed by a background in architecture and her ongoing research on accessibility, universal design, and the relationship between space and the senses.

Before joining the CuratorLab, Diarietou worked on artistic and architectural initiatives across West and North Africa, as well as in Saudi Arabia, combining community engagement, spatial research, and artistic collaboration. She continues to develop projects that unite creative disciplines and emphasize empathy, inclusion, and the human experience at the center of design and curation.

Touch, Study, Breath

Nnenna Okore, Once in a Lifetime, 2024, Hessian, cheesecloth, dye, wire, 104 × 94 × 30 cm, courtesy of Sakhile&Me Gallery.

Across painting, photography, textile, and sculpture, the participating artists invite audiences to sense rather than simply observe. Their works form a sensory dialogue between stillness and resonance, material and void, surface and depth.

Yaay Hawa Fall, Rituals, 2022, Photography, digital print, 70 × 50 cm, Edition of 5.

At its core, What We Don’t See proposes that art is not confined to what the eye can capture. It gestures toward a shared awareness that perception unites the senses and opens space for empathy.


A call to listen with eyes closed.


To enquire about any of the artworks in this exhibition

Latitudes CuratorLab is proudly presented by Rand Merchant Bank.

In partnership with Art School Africa.

Further Reading In Articles

African Artist Directory

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