Kaela Mei-Chee Chambers '22 Premieres Language-Focused Installation
Transdisciplinary artist Kaela Mei-Chee Chambers '22 has premiered her latest installation, Eastern Aphasia Caress (EAC), at the New York Public Library's Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library on 20th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues. The exhibition, which opened on November 14, 2024, will remain on view through November 2025 as part of the High Line Art's "Art Off Line" program.
"Eastern Aphasia Caress" reimagines the Western Aphasia Battery (WAB), a diagnostic assessment administered by speech-language pathologists to evaluate language loss. Chambers was inspired to create this work after witnessing her mother undergo the assessment during her cognitive decline due to late-stage brain cancer. Fascinated by the WAB's attempt to standardize a nuanced and individual experience, Chambers created a more personal version, replacing everyday objects with items designed to evoke deeper concepts of family connection and emotional bonds.
The exhibition is built around community engagement, with Chambers having hosted five art workshops at the Andrew Heiskell Library's community room over the summer. During these sessions, participants considered the question: "What is a word you would want a loved one to know and remember?" Attendees then sculpted their chosen words and described what they had created, exploring the gap between intention and execution.
The final installation features all 44 manipulatives made during the workshops, accompanied by high-contrast stimulus drawings meticulously rendered by Chambers. The exhibition also includes a large-scale worksheet painting and two tactile EAC "kits"—a collection of six manipulatives cast in resin that visitors can interact with, alongside a corresponding "stimulus book." Chambers has created an index (available in tactile and braille format) that walks viewers through each workshop participant's contribution.
Through this work, Chambers intends to create "an emotional, human antidote to the clinical, standardized Western Aphasia Battery." The installation serves both as a space for coping and as a record of that coping process, creating what the artist calls "a public access library of words, people, and memories."
During her time at Columbia, Chambers was a Neiman Fellow at the LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies and a recipient of the Glasier Fellowship. She was also a participant in the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture's 2023 cohort. Her work has been exhibited at venues including Unclebrother, the Jewish Museum, and the Wallach Art Gallery.
A guided sensory tour of the installation with the artist will take place on Tuesday, April 22, 2025, from 5:30 to 7pm at the library.