Touch. It’s such an important sense. Yet too often it’s deemed inappropriate. We’ve conditioned ourselves to only experience visual arts with our eyes, forgetting our body, our spacial awareness and rejecting the urge to explore texture, temperature, and weight. Instead we are left guessing through calculations and assumptions through our eyes.
Last month at Kadist, we were welcome to explore a collection of art made to be touched. A performative essay by Fayen d’Evie was read about the history of art and touch. Which brought up questions about why work needs to last forever. We then experienced a tour of the works, lead by Georgina Kleege.
Beyond the content of this show, I’d like to thank Kadist for their welcoming atmosphere. While this show was very much art for the art conversation, which can become elitist. As an artist who had never came to this gallery before and showed up alone, I felt very welcome. A total stranger (and relative of one of the presenters) came up to me and struck up a conversation about what brought me out to the show. (Probably seeing me standing alone in the corner awkwardly.) This was awesome. This sort of interaction works to break down the allusion of a gallery being austere & hoity-toity and instead foster a space of exploration for people of all types, not just the ones in the know.
So check out Kadist if you have not. They are friendly group of people and I find their exhibitions scratch your intellectual mind without loosing reality or personability.
Kadist Art Foundation
3295 20th Street
San Francisco
CA, 94110
