The World Around Me
About The Project: Virtual Exhibition + Artist’s Interview
There is an interesting thing that happens when we see a familiar place through someone else's eyes.
A street we have walked down countless times suddenly feels unfamiliar. A kitchen table becomes a landscape of memory. An ordinary window, hallway, or corner of a city begins to reveal details we had never considered before. The place itself has not changed. What changes is the way we are invited to look at it.
The World Around Me begins with this shift in perspective.
The World Around Me is a virtual exhibition + artist interview created through an international open call by Open Call For Artists, bringing together artists from around the world whose works explore the places, people, routines, and experiences that shape everyday life. Although each artist begins from a different point of view, they share a curiosity about the familiar and a desire to look at it with renewed attention.
The works emerge from homes and neighbourhoods, daily routines, conversations, landscapes, communities, personal histories, and moments that might otherwise pass unnoticed. For some artists, these surroundings are tangible and immediate. For others, they are shaped just as much by memory, emotion, and imagination as by physical space.
One of the defining qualities of the exhibition is the diversity of perspectives it presents. Two artists may respond to similar surroundings yet arrive at entirely different conclusions. One notices the structure of a building, another the changing quality of light. One is drawn to familiar faces, while another finds meaning in empty spaces that quietly carry traces of those who have passed through them.
The works move naturally between observation and interpretation. Some remain closely connected to everyday experience, while others transform familiar places through memory, symbolism, or personal reflection. Together, they remind us that our understanding of the world is shaped not only by what we see, but also by what we remember, overlook, revisit, and carry with us over time.
What connects these works is a shared curiosity about the ordinary. Each invites viewers to look again at places, moments, and experiences that familiarity often causes us to overlook, revealing the richness that has been there all along.
Exhibition Note
The World Around Me: A Virtual Exhibition
Describing the world around us is often more difficult than we expect.
When people are asked about the place they call home, they rarely begin with landmarks or famous buildings. Instead, they remember the café they visited every weekend, the tree outside a childhood window, the neighbour they greeted each morning, or the familiar route they no longer need to think about. It is these repeated encounters that gradually shape our sense of place.
The artists in The World Around Me recognise the significance of those experiences.
Rather than focusing solely on extraordinary subjects, the exhibition draws attention to the places, objects, and routines that quietly become part of everyday life. Through careful observation and personal interpretation, the artists reveal how meaning accumulates over time, often in ways that are only recognised when viewed from a different perspective.
As the exhibition unfolds, viewers encounter a wide range of artistic approaches. Some works examine the external world with careful attention to place and detail. Others turn inward, allowing memory, identity, and emotion to reshape familiar environments. Together, these perspectives demonstrate that there is no single way of understanding the world we inhabit.
Instead, the exhibition becomes a conversation between individual experiences. Each artwork offers one perspective, while leaving space for viewers to reflect on their own. In doing so, The World Around Me reminds us that the places we know best often continue to reveal something new when we choose to look at them differently.
