Part of a wider collection of tactile images for blind and partially sighted people, these 3D printed works are based on a series of ceramic murals by Marion Brandis and are designed to be understood through touch.
Situated in Huddersfield Art Gallery, the centre panel of the original mural has since been lost and has been recreated here in an accessible, tactile form, using photographs and newspaper clippings. In turn, information regarding the artist and the works origin have been reintroduced to the gallery after being rediscovered through this project.
Created in partial fulfilment of the requirements of a PhD at the University of Huddersfield, the thesis includes resources and information to aid in the design and creation of tactile images from both a professional and engaged amateur audience.
“one aspect of making an accessible image based on and in relation to these murals, has been to rediscover the origins of the work and in so doing, allowing both a disabled and non-disabled audience access to a the works contextual histories, in order that we might “look at it from a particular point in time.” In this way, my first port of call was Huddersfield Art Gallery itself, who upon being approached informed me that the panels “were a library commission” and as such had no information or documentation regarding them, in the way one would expect from something housed in a permanent collection.
This was followed by enquiries from the library, and whilst the library staff, local studies and archive services did not have the information to hand, they did offer an insight into where such information might be found. I was presented with an informal collection of previous enquiries on specific artworks within the council, a series of physical folders with copies of newspaper articles and handwritten notes.
Through these folders and other informal discussions, I was able to ascertain that the works were not in their current location in 1939, as shown by a photograph that documented previous library renovations, in turn, through conversations with staff and volunteers, it was anecdotally determined that the works were installed sometime around the late 1980’s or early 1990’s. Furthermore, a news article mentioning “the ceramic mural” from The Huddersfield Examiner 12/06/1990 pictures a now lost centre panel, which it credits to “German artist Marion Brandis” and which appears to depict Huddersfield in much the same style and tiled construction of the other panels. Additionally, the margins of one of the available printed versions of this newspaper article, features handwritten notes that appear to read “plus other 2 murals hanging in stairwell” which seem to suggest that the diptych we are trying to place, is in fact, two thirds of a triptych.” (Crumlish, 2023)
Download for free: www.thingiverse.com/thing:6042882
