What is it like to feel a painting only by your fingers, by the touch? The citizens of Sumy can now try to grasp this kind of perception. Congress Centre of Sumy State University is hosting an exhibition entitled ARTouch. The display features eight paintings; one of them was made by Kyiv-based painter Serhii Ponocheniuk. The painting is entitled Contemplation of Happiness. Teia Dzhobova, an artist from Sumy, made the other seven. The message from the event’s organizers is to have a “project, designed to seek new opportunities in the arts for people with visual impairments.”
Dzhobova reflects in the conception of the idea to create images for the blind: “I was interested in an opportunity to create something that would be accessible for people who cannot see; to make them get acquainted with art too. I created the first work in this series about a year ago. What is the creative process? I close my eyes and try to imitate what I might imagine with my touch only, what can I do to make it easier to perceive. I might have to correct some of the details...”
I have tried to close my eyes and access your work by the touch. But what I perceive on touch and what I see are two different things...
“Yes, of course. Touch and look are very different things. Everything is perceived differently at the touch. But, you know, one of the exhibition’s blind visitors had ‘read’ one of my paintings very precisely: it was a cityscape, which a city clock on top...”
Daria Sassa, who’s been totally blind since childhood, is among the display’s visitors. “You can feel some ornaments by the touch,” she speaks of what she ‘saw” with her hands. “But I could not always immediately understand what was depicted. When I was told that this particular detail was a bird’s wing, I touched it again and understood that it was indeed the wing, I recognized it. Maybe I should have spent more time studying the pictures. For me it’s a new experience. But I think that if there were more exhibitions like this in Sumy, then of course we would have acquired certain skills. And in general, I think, artists should consult blind people, ask how they feel this or that on touch, what they can understand... Me and my husband, by the way, were in Kharkiv, at an exhibition of 3D-printed objects. We could ‘see’ the Egyptian Pyramids and the Eiffel Tower, even accompanied by appropriate flavors... I am very thankful that there are people who make art for those who are unable to see it with eyes...”
ARTouch exhibition will be open through March 3.
