“Tell Tea Tales” - Allpress Studio 2021

A collaborative exhibition from Catherine Spence and Anja Gibbs at Allpress Studio, Auckland.

Inspired by the Japanese traditions of the chawan (tea bowl) and the poetry style of the haiku, Catherine and Anja explore multisensory appreciations of beauty.

The use of braille shows that the enjoyment of art is not just about looking at the visual but the experience and the accessibility of art.

Anja is a writer and translates the written word for the blind and low vision community, Catherine is a clay artist - studio potter. Together they created “Tell Tea Tales” – a collection of tea bowls and cups with Braille haiku. They are interested in the experience of art being beyond the looking, but in art as an experience of senses – sight, feel, smell, touch.

They encourage viewers to hold the cup, read the braille and/or the translated scrolls within the cup; and by extension – drink from the cup!