“How I Came to Ottawa” by Acadian-Métis artist Eric Walker in 2017 is exhibited at the Ottawa Art Gallery (OAG) and is the gallery’s first special commission of a touchable art work.
The associated label calls attention through text and iconography that the work is intended to be touched. In fact the label invites visitors to “Please Touch!” the artwork. The relief, the materials used, the geometry of its components, and its explicitly detectable edges encourage multi-sensory exploration – visual and tactile.
![Made of pieces of thin sheet metal and rivets, this touchable artwork displays the Ottawa International Airport viewed from above. The airport is framed at the top and bottom by train cars and the sides by inner and inter city buses.](https://m4c.space/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/IMG_7450-1024x664.jpg)
![Artefact label: Eric Walker (1957, Halifax, NS –) How I Came to Ottawa, 2017. Mixed media construction on plywood. Special Commission for the Ottawa Art Gallery, 2017. Collection of the Ottawa Art Gallery. Purchased with the support of the Miss Mary Art That Works Fund, 2017. This touchable work of art, produced by Acadian-Métis artist Eric Walker, illustrates a personal journey and brings to mind many travel stories. It maps Ottawa as a place of transience, a city between destinations, shaped primarily by the arrivals and departures of individuals from across Canada and around the world. This is the first tactile work of art to be commissioned by the Ottawa Art Gallery for its permanent collection. This is a touchable work. Please Touch!](https://m4c.space/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/IMG_7451-738x1024.jpg)
![Close-up, detail view of the artwork illustrates the material changes, edge reliefs, and rivets used in the artwork.](https://m4c.space/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/IMG_7453-1024x768.jpg)
This artwork and its label invite visitors to explore its subject through both vision and touch. Clearly defined geometric shapes with explicitly detectable edges and relief, facilitate tactile, as well as visual, exploration.