Presented by: Maybank Foundation, as part of its 2023 Emerging Women Artist Exhibition
Artists: Ain Rahman, Alaysia Chen, Alexdrina Chong, Cheong See Min, Hana Zamri, Haz Yusup, Joanne Loo, Kimberley Boudville, Poojitha Menon, Sarah Radzi, Trina Teoh and Yazi Jaclyn
Curator: Elizabeth Low
Audio description training, writing and editing: In Transit
Labyrinths of Touch brought together 12 women artists exploring touch through tactile artworks and sound. Structured around four themes – exploration, reconciliation, remembrance and hope – the exhibition invited audiences to experience art beyond the visual.
Many of the artworks invited visitors to engage through touch, with audio descriptions accompanying all 12 works. Together, these elements offered different ways to encounter the artworks and engage with the ideas, details and experiences they held.
In Transit Space CIC delivered audio description training for participating artists, exploring how artworks could be described for blind and partially sighted audiences. We wrote some of the descriptions and edited all 12, working to convey the artworks’ visual qualities and details through language.
Some artists also experimented with writing or delivering their own descriptions, considering which details to draw attention to and how to communicate the qualities of their work through language. The process offered another way to reflect on their practice while opening up different ways for audiences to encounter the artworks.