Karen Clahilda, ITB Visual Art Student Curates Inclusive Art Exhibition
BANDUNG, itb.ac.id – For one of her Final Project’s prerequisites, Karen Clahilda Gabriela curated an exhibition titled “Palpating the Still Life.” The exhibition was held from Tuesday to Wednesday (30-31/5/2023) at Soemardja Galery, Old CAD Building floor 1, ITB Ganesha Campus.
Choosing the theme of still life, which is a composition of artworks by arranging objects, Karen represented the artworks of three artists: Kayla Kai, Bagas Mahardika, and Karena Clahilda herself.
Even if the three artworks represent the same objects, each artist delivered their own presentation with a different medium. Kai used watercolor, Bagas used oil paints, and Karen inked up a linocut block.
What’s unique, they complemented their artworks with a safe-touch textured collection, audio guide, and braille font panel. This was done to provide access for visually impaired people so that they could also enjoy the artworks. Using those facilities, they were expected to “perceive” the artworks.
The procurement of those facilities, said Karen, is a result of a discussion during the planning process. “The planning process began with a discussion involving the Sentra Wyata Guna community regarding the facilities that might help them in an art exhibition room. Then, the exhibition was carried out as a trial platform for that discussion result,” said the curator.
Through this exhibition, Karen wanted to show that art which she called the practice and role which stood to represent culture and humans, and a “universal” language, must be inclusive to all social classes with no exception. In that regard, she emphasized visually impaired people inside a Visual Art exhibition.
“Even if there are still a lot of things that can be improved, especially the replicas of the two-dimensional artworks, which were considered hard to interpret for the visually impaired, different from the other three-dimensional objects which can be palpated in its entirety. I still have great expectations to keep developing art spaces and understanding the importance of art in educating the public,” said Karen Clahilda.
Reporter: Inas Annisa Aulia (Visual Art, 2020)
Translator: Favian Aldilla R (Civil Engineering, 2019)
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