Olivia Brouwer - CONTACT Kits

From Olivia Brouwer:

Art is often a domain that is inaccessible to the visually impaired. As a result, this community can feel marginalized and forgotten about. Too often we rely solely on the visitor’s sense of sight to create meaning from a piece of art. My recent work aims to bring awareness to the necessity of including the visually impaired in the art community by creating art that can be enjoyed through sight and touch.

As a partially blind artist, I am interested in exploring new ways to make art accessible to those who have sensory impairments. My previous work has dealt with the meaning-making process, including the Rorschach Inkblot test, and the difference between sight and perceiving. My current work aims to expand on those themes by activating the viewer’s ability to make sense of art in new ways by creating pieces that are accessible on a visual and tactile level.

CONTACT is a series of tactile kits created for the inclusion of both visually impaired and sighted folks. They include abstract, mixed-media paintings that can be touched, a translucent sleeve over the painting with removable Braille tabs, a booklet to place the Braille tabs and decode to English text, a Braille alphabet chart, and an artist statement, bio, and instructions for the kit, along with its translation in a Braille embossed booklet.

CONTACT kit (Untitled No. 3)
2021
Acrylic on canvas
12” x 12” x 2”

CONTACT kit (Untitled No. 4)
2021
Acrylic and encaustic on wood panel
12” x 12” x 2” 

CONTACT kit (Untitled No. 6)
2021
Acrylic, velvet, encaustic, and thread on canvas
12” x 12” x 2”