Bianca Raffaella: See what she can see

Registered blind from birth, Bianca Raffaella is today an award-winning British visual artist. Winner of the 2025 Women in Art Award and a former resident of the Tracey Emin Artist Residency, her work has been widely exhibited and is increasingly sought after for its distinctive visual language.

Bianca’s practice is shaped by the shifting limits of her sight. Working largely through touch, memory, and sensory recall, she builds paintings from blur, movement, and visual interference — images that appear to fragment, fade, and reform as layers of colour are applied and dissolved.

In the final weeks of her pregnancy, Bianca begins a new body of work for a major solo exhibition, documenting motherhood for the first time. With limited time and a body in flux, the unique way she paints comes into focus — offering a rare glimpse into what she calls her “layers of vision”: how she perceives, interprets, and translates the visual world onto canvas.

Documentary maker Sahar Zand follows Bianca through the creation of a single painting, capturing a moment where vision, pregnancy, and time briefly align on the canvas — and where a life shaped by adversity becomes a powerful act of seeing.

This programme contains references to an eating disorder. If you are suffering distress or despair and need support, you could speak to a health professional, or an organisation that offers support.

BBC Sounds | World Service | The Documentary Podcast