ELEMENTS OF A CULTURE:VISIONS BY DEAF ARTISTS

B REND A SCHERTZ AND HARLAN L A N E

INTRODUCTION

An entire genre of vibrant, eloquent minority arthas largely escaped the attention of art scholars and thegeneral public, and that is Deaf Art. Deaf Art is art—oils, watercolors, acrylic, pen and ink, video, photog-raphy, sculpture—that is an expression of Deaf culture.Deaf Art communicates not the sensory experience ofsilence, but rather the values of Deaf culture. Theseinclude the beauty of sign language and its painfuloppression, the breakdown of family life when hearingparents cannot communicate in sign language, the joysof Deaf bonding, and the abuses of audiology when theDeaf difference is treated as deviance. Deaf Art oftenincludes the expression of turning points in the artist'sacculturation to Deaf culture, such as the discovery oflanguage, or turning points in the history of Deafpeoples, such as the 1880 Milan Congress prohibitingsigned languages in Europe and America. In short. DeafArt is like other genres of minority art (for example,African-American art) in engaging viewers aestheti-cally while communicating universals of minorityoppression and bonding and a unique vision thatbroadens viewers' understanding of their humanity.

Deaf Art has largely escaped attention in theUnited States for the same reason that Deaf culture haddone so until recently. The very large number offormerly hearing Americans who are clearly disabledby their deafness (an estimated 20 million) has over-shadowed and miscast as disabled the smaller linguisticminority (less than a mil lion) who are born Deaf or earlybecome so, acquire American Sign Language (ASL) astheir primary language, marry Deaf and integrate intothe society called (in ASL) the DEAF-WORLD.1 Thehistory of the American DEAF-WORLD reaches backto the founding of the United States and earlier to theDEAF-WORLD in Enlightenment France. This is arich and complex culture with unique mores, values and

knowledge. Ever since the Gallaudet Revolution of1988 and the drama Children of a Lesser God (moreabout these below) hearing Americans have beendiscovering what the Atlantic Monthly has called "thenew ethnicity," but most have yet to discover its art.

Deaf artists, for whom being Deaf is a significantaspect of their lives, express their Deaf experiences inElements of Culture: Visions by Deaf Artists. North-eastern University has organized and implemented thisfirst National Touring Exhibit of Deaf Art upon whichthis article is based. More than two decades ago,Northeastern established a program of teaching andresearch in American Sign Language, soon joined by aninterpreter education program. A cadre of Deaf studentsattends Northeastern, and it is the site of events ofparticular interest to the DEAF WORLD, notably theannual ASL Festival.

The flourishing of Deaf Art is a facet of a revolutionin thought concerning Deaf people that is taking place,a change in construction as sweeping as the change thatput African-American citizen in place of slave prop-erty; that put gay minority in place of homosexualsufferer; that put equal partnership for women in placeof narrowly stereotyped roles such as nurse and house-wife. In this revolution of thought, deafness-as-disabil-ity is increasingly replaced by Deaf as linguistic minor-ity. To quote the former secretary-general of the UnitedNations: "For me and my colleagues. Deaf people arenot a disability group [but] a linguistic minority. AndI understand that recognizing Deaf people as a linguisticminority goes hand in hand with respect for the DeafCommunity."2

ELEMENTS OF CULTURE: VISIONS BY DEAF ARTISTS

Deaf artists have been expressing the Deaf experi-ence since the beginning of recorded Deaf history ineighteenth-century France.3 Deaf artists, like other

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artists, have been strongly influenced by events inhistory, and their work reflects not only the individualperspective but also the universal experiences of anoppressed minority group.

The oppression of sign language that began in the1860s4 was made official at the 1880 Milan Congress,a pi votal eve nt i n the "war of methods " between the oraland manual schools in the education of Deaf children.The shared educational experiences of Deaf children,particularly those brought up in the oral tradition, arepopular themes among Deaf artists. Artworks dealingwith the oppression of sign language that accompaniesoral education often express very strong emotions.

During the heyday of oralism, it was believed thatsign language was a primitive and fundamentallyflawed method of encoding a spoken language. In manyschools for the Deat in the United States the use of si tinlanguage was perceived as an obstacle to the acquisitionof English-language skills by Deaf students, and as aconsequence all lessons were given in spoken English;that is, using the oral method. Sign language was strictlyforbidden, and punishment for students caught usingsigns was often swift and harsh. This is the backgroundfor Betty G. Miller's groundbreaking Ameslan Prohib-ited, a pen and ink drawing of a disembodied, shackled

pairof hands with dismembered fingers (Fii' I). SandiInches Vasnick addresses the same theme in her batik.Silence, a portrayal of a pair of figures whose outsizedfolded hands seem to consist entirely of tightl. interwo-ven fingers (Fig. 2). Being compelled to sit with handsfolded in this manner actually was a technique toprevent students from signing. The "Silence of the titleis reinforced by the absence of mouths on the two faces.

In Betty G. Millers Bell School, 1944, named foran oral school in Chicago, the students arc given themechanical jaws of marionettes, a recurring image inMiller's early work. The emphasis on the unused handsin this work indicates the forbidden nature of signlanguage. The letters on the background spell out thesoundsrequiredof Deat children in speech training. UziBuzgalo, in his / Want to Ride uses the image of acarousel to represent the signed, accessible languagethat is kept beyond the reach of the Deaf child I Fig. 3).The child in this work appears to be drowning in a poolof water, a metaphor for the difficulty the child faces insurviving the oral education environment. In thi orka triangle represents the child, his parents, and thepathology of the cycle of oppression.

The printmakerJoanPopovich-Kutscher also makesfrequent use of triangles, for example in her Confusion

- • » .

Fig. 1. Betty G. Miller, Ameslan Prohibited, 1972, pen and ink, 23x15 (courtesy of Sandi Inches Vasmck)Photo: Colortek.

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<* %

* • • •

Fig. 2. Sandi Inches Vasnick, Silence, 1989, batik.21x16. Photo: Colortek.

Fig. 3. UziBuzagio, I Want to Ride, 1997 acrylic onpaper, 33x38 (courtesy of Steve and Nancy Bock andfamily). Photo: Arthur S. Aubry.

of Mood, where a triangle represents "'three ma|or partsof my life, my parents, the hospital and the school torthe deaf.' Popov ich-Kulscher was kept in an institutionfor mentally retarded children even though her parentsknew that she was onlv deaf, and this delayed for manyyears her formal acquisition of language. Rope is oneot the most common recurring symbols in her work; itrepresents the oppression of ha\ ing her hands w ere tieddown so that she couldn't express herself. Popov ich-Kutscher also uses acute angles, lor instance the sharppoints in Effect Point, to represent pain in her life (Fi».4 and Fig. 5).

The painful period in the history ot Deaf people thatbegan with the 1880 Milan Congress lasted over 80years. Only in the 1960s did progress towards theelimination of neeative connotations ol sien language

begin. This was chiefly due to Dr. William Stokoe. Jr..chair of the English department at what was thenGallaudet College, whose research into the linguisticsof American Sign Language established it as a distinctlanguage in and of itself. His peers both hearing andDeaf, largely ignored the I960 publication of Stokoes

initial findings related to the linguistics ot AmericanSign Language. The times, however, were beginning tochange and the 1965 publication of Stokoe s secondwork finally began to attract attention. The newfoundvalidation ot ASL profoundly affected Deaf people sconcept of their own language.

Technical developments in the 1970s had profoundimpact on the Deaf communit)• Open captioned tele-\ision beean in 1972 on the Public BroadcastingSystem with Julia Child's French Chef program. This

Brenda Schertz was born Deaf in a Deaf family and is a member of the Deaf Community. She organized her firstexhibit of Deaf Cu Iture Art in 1993, and is a co-director of the First National Touring Exhibit of Deaf Culture Art.Harian Lane is hearing and is the other co-director of the touring exhibit. He is a strong advocate of culturally Deafpeople. Among his published books are When the Mind Hears and The Mask of Benevolence.

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Fig. 4. Joan Popovich-Kutscher, Confusion of Mood,1999, etching/aquarelle on handmade paper, 10x 10.Photo: Spike Mafford.

led to the development of closed-captioned technologythat became generally available in 1980. Distribution ofthe Teletypewriter (TTY) began in 1968 and TTYs werein widespread use among Deaf people by the early 70s.The first TTYs were old Teletype machines fitted withmodems that allowed Deaf people to type conversationsover regular phone lines. Before the advent of the TTYthere was no way Deaf people could use the telephoneindependently. Betty G. Miller celebrated the TTY inher neon work, TTY Call (Fig. 6).

The National Theatre of the Deaf (NTD) wasestablished in 1967 and one of its objectives was to be"an instrument which could positively influence socialattitudes toward deaf people NTD In its 1971 -1972national tour, "presented the Deaf experience in severalof their works, for example in its original companypiece. My Third Eye. a play in five parts about ASL andDeaf people. One of those segments, co-directed by thelate beloved British Deaf actress and poet DorothyMiles, features a ringmaster who displays two cagedhearing people and explains their bizarre ways to theaudience (They see with their ears and sign with theirmouths!')".' This reflected a new and changing con-sciousness among Deaf people about their language andculture.v

Fig. 5. Joan Popovich-Kutscher, Effect Point, 1993etching/aquarelle on handmade paper 7x7 PhotSpike Mafford.

Betty G. Miller's February 1972 one-woman artexhibit Silent World, held at Gallaudet"s WashburnArts BuildinL\ "ma> have been the first exhibition in theU.S. devoted to art expressing themes from the DEAF-WORLD. Since much of the work was high]) criticalof hearing oppression, the exhibit was controversialamong both hearing and Deaf audiences. It also intro-duced many future Deaf leaders to Deaf Art for the firsttime" ' Miller's Ameslan Prohibited, included in thistour, was shown at Silent World.

The performance of NTD s My Third Eye atGallaudet during the same weekend that Silent Worldopened gives some indication of the fresh culturalrichness of tru- times. In Sign Me Alia GilbertEastman s adaptation of George Bernard Shaws playPygmalion (the basis tor the film My Fair Lady) firstproduced in 1973, Eastman ridiculed the artificialsigning systems then being developed.11 Artificial sign-ing systems were during this period being developed byhearing persons who believed that using signs inEnglish word order, as opposed to the grammaticalstructure of American Sign Language, would result inimproved reading and writing skills in deai children.This was as stilted and artificial as employing a Frenchvocabulary but an English word order.

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The art colonv Spectrum - Focus on Deaf Artistswas founded by a group of hearing artists in Texas in1975 with financial assistance from the National En-dowment for the Arts. Betty G. Miller left Gallaudet tojoin them.and in L977 Spectrum was official l} launchedwith 22 Deaf performing and visual artists. First basedat a ten-acre ranch. Spectrum later moved to a renovatedwarehouse in downtown Austin. Spectrums first the-ater production was A Play of Our Own," by the Deafplaywright Doroth) Miles, a comedy about a youngDeaf woman who brings a hearing boyfriend home tomeet her family. The American Deaf Dance Companychoreographed works for Deaf dancers to performindependently of music. Betty G. Miller and ChuckBaird started an archive of slides containing works byDeaf artists in the U.S.. and under Miller's direction theSpectrum Visual Arts Institute published a newsletteras well as hosting summer conferences on Deaf arts.1

Into the midst of this Deaf cultural resurgence came

a 1975 piece of federal legislation, th Education aA AllHandicapped Children Act (PL 94-142). which had aprofound influence on the subsequent history of theculture. Intended to provide choices tor he educationalplacement of Deaf children, this law made the tradi-tional education of Deaf children at schools for the deafthe least-favored approach, instead giving preference toplacement in local educational programs that werefrequently not able to accommodate their languageneeds.15

Susan Dupor's / Interesting Hamster reflects theexperience of a Deaf student who spent years inmainstream programs (Fig. 7). The juxtaposition of thehamsters and the students is a metaphor for the "caged"environment of the self-contained classrooms typical ofthese programs. In mainstream schools, the term 'Hear-ing Impaired' indicates a pathological disorder, anddeaf students audiological and speech developmentare of paramount importance. Dupor indicates this by

Fig 6. Betty G Miller, TTYCa//, 1997, neon assemblage,30x24. Photo: BettyG. Miller.

24 Voume 15 Number2 Fall-Winter 1999-2000 Visual Anthropology Review

Fig. 7. Susan Dupor, I interesting hamster, 1993, oil onmasonite, 49x49.5. Photo: Spike Mafford.

Fig. 8.Betty G. Miller. Bell School, 1944,1972, oil/mixed media, 44x44 (courtesy of Tom Humphries).Photo: Spike Mafford.

Fig. 9. Thad Martin, Articulatus (Read My Lips), 1994, ceramic, 34x78x48"aah," "ooo, "err," "ege," 'mmm/' and "uhh.1 Photo: Thad Martin.

From left to right,

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portraying the students heads in faceless cross section.Despite the twenty-year gap in between them, and tactthat each w as created independently of the other thereare striking similarities between this work and Betty G.Miller s Bell School. 1944 (Fig. 8). Dupor's paintingPL 94-142 also relates to this experience; in this workthe subjects co\ er their faces as if embarrassed by theirdeafness.

Thad Martin, who was educated exclusively inhearing schools, reflects on his experience in hisceramic grouping Articulatns (Fig 9). This work,which consists of si\ ceramic heads ranging from 28 to36 inches in height, tells of one Deaf person s experi-ence, in the artist's words, '•from an awakening to one'ssense of sell, through a struggle tor tooting in thehearing world, to an affirmation of one s wholeness andacceptance of the journey to come.

Barriers to communication are another linkingtheme in the exhibit. The effortless communication that

Fig 11. Avenue of Loss, 1998, Bronze, StainlessSteel, Copperon Marble base, 15x12x8. (CourtesyofMr. and Mrs. Andrew Bruce). Photo: Ray Block.

Fig. 10. Susan Dupor, Family Dog, 1991, acrylic oncanvas, 56x57. Photo: Spike Mafford.

most hearing people take for granted is for Deaf peoplea rarity. Very few families of Deaf children acquireenough sign language skills to effectively communicatewith their children. Susan Dupor expresses feelingstypical to deaf children isolated in non-signing familiesin her Family Doi>. The faces of other family membersare blurred, indicative of the similarities betweenlipreading and viewing a TV program disrupted bystatic. In her bronze sculpture Avenue of Loss. RobinTaylor deals with the same issue of communicationbarriers inside the family. Here, the mother's arm turnsinto stiff pieces of wood "because she uses no ASL- andhas no language skills to communicate (Fig. II) . InFamily Dag, the family members are depicted in coldblue hues with their hands tucked under their arms tosignify their unwillingness to learn sign language. Thebarrier is gi\en \isible form by the bright yellow tableseparating the child from the rest of the family, andemphasized by the child's pose as the do? of the title,an object of affection but not one from which commu-nication is expected. Similarly, the bars between themother and daughter in Avenue of Loss embody thecommunication barrier

Communication, pride in Deaf culture and culturalconflicts were the themes of Children of a Lesser God.which came to Broadway in 1980. The play won Tonyawards, has been performed all around the country, andwas made into the 1986 movie with William Hurt andMarlee Mathn. The made-toi-television Hallmark Hallof Fame film Love Is Never Silent, based on the novel

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Fig. 12 and Fig. 13. Orkid Sassouni, Being Deaf and Free-Spirits, 1998-99, book ofphotographs, 3.5x4.5 photos in 14.5x8 book Photos: Orkid Sassouni

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Fig. 14. Chuck Baird, Art No. 2,1994, acrylic, 24x30 (courtesy of JaimeHarter). Photo: Colortek.

/// This Sii>n. appeared in Decemher 1985 The nation-wide exposure of the play and films have helped to makethe general public more aware of Deaf people.

The city of Rochester New York, where theNational Technical Institute for the Deaf at RochesterInstitute of Technology was founded in 1%7, was ahotbed of cultural activity in the 1980s. Among otherdevelopments. Rochester saw the 1985 estahhshmeniot Deaf Artists of America (DAA), a professionalorganization created to provide a clearinghouse forDeaf artists. DAA published an artists1 directory and awell-designed newsletter as well as sponsoring confer-ences. The DAA Galler> organized more than 20exhibits before the closing in 1992.1' A 1987 meetingin Rochester on ASL Poetry led to ASL Literatureconferences in 1991 and 1996. 'These gatherings ofpoets, storytellers, playwrights, literary critics, andothers, promote the creation, study and teaching of theliterature of DEAF-WORLD culture."'

The 1980s also saw a profusion of books about DeafCulture and Deaf people sending a wave of materialsthat went to the mainstream public promoting evengreater awareness about Deaf people. We saw thepublication of two major books about the history ofDeaf peoples. Jack Gannon s popular history Deaf

Heritage was published in 1981, Dr. Harlan Lane sWhen the Mind Hears came out in 1986; and Deaf InAmerica. Voices From a Culture, by Carol Padden andTom Humphries, appeared in 1988. Scholarly studieshad been written earlier, but these became the volumesthat were in every educated deaf household and pro-vided a shared knowledge of Deaf culture and history.

The Daif President Now protest at GallaudetUniversity in March 1988, now known as the GallaudetRevolution, brought Deaf issues to the nation s tele-vised evening news. Despite applications - for the firsttime in history - of two qualified Deaf candidates forpresidency, the Gallaudet University board of trusteesappointed a new president who was hearing and had noknowledge of sign language or of Deaf people. Thedecision infuriated students, faculty, staff and alumni.After a well-publicized one-week protest, the newappointee declined the position and the board selectedI. King Jordan, the Deaf former dean of the College ofArts & Sciences, as the seventh president of Gallaudet.This was an enormous victory for Deaf people and anew sense of empowerment spread to Deaf people allover the country. Since then. Deaf people have hadgreater political and career expectations.

OrkiJ Sassouni, now a photographer whose work

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is included in the present exhibit, has said that shethought she was the only Deaf person in the world untilshe saw Deaf President Nowon television. This promptedher to enroll at Gallaudet and learn sign language.Sassouni has created a collection of black and whitephotographs of Deaf people using "the fine art of signlanguage" (Fig. 12 and Fig. 13). As late as the 1960smany Deaf people avoided signing in public because ofthe negative attention it drew. Deaf people have comea long way; they are no longer embarrassed about signlanguage.

One year after the Deaf President Now movement,in May of 1989, the Deaf Way. a spectacular interna-tional arts festival and conference celebrating Deafculture, literature and art was held at Gallaudet Univer-sity. Immediately before Deaf Way, a four day work-shop co-facilitated by Betty G. Miller and Paul Johnstonand involving seven other Deaf artists defined anddeveloped the concept, name and written manifesto ofDeafView/Image Art, also called De' VIA. The De' VIAManifesto states that 'De'VIA represents Deaf artistsand perceptions based on their Deaf experiences. It usesformal art elements with the intention of expressinginnate cultural or physical Deaf experiences. Theseexperiences may include Deaf metaphors. Deaf per-spectives, and Deaf insight in relationship with theenvironment (both the natural world and Deaf culturalenvironment), spiritual and everyday life. De'VIA can

be identified by formal elements SUCHI Deal artists"possible tendency to use contrasting colon and values.intense colors, contrasting textures. It may also mostoften include a centralized focus, with exaggeration oremphasis on facial features, especially eyes, mouths,ears, and hands. Currently, Dear" artists tend to work inhuman scale with these exaggerations, and not exagger-ate the space around these elements."

Recent works of Deaf Art seem increasingly toemphasize sign language and handshapes in their work.Chuck Baird's painting. Art No. 2 and his multimediaHeart show the signs for art' and "hear t ."respectively(Fig. U and Fig. 15). la both works Bairduses his own hands as models. Tony Landon McGregorincorporates three ASL signs, "butterfly,' "fish" and"bird" into his gourd work. Three Southwestern SignsFig. 16). In contrast to the negative emphasis that thehands are given in Vasniek s Silence and Miller'sAmeslan Prohibited, they are celebrated in Heart andThree Southwestern Signs. The hand is the major focusof Irene Bartok'.s photograph Divine Power (Fi| 17).And Paul Johnston states: "I am infatuated with theshape and the gestures of the hand, and plays u ith thesein his visually lyrical semi-abstract watercolors. Hisartful combination of musical instruments and hands inPoetic Hand I and Poetic Hand 2 emphasizes this visuallyricism (Fig. 18 and Fig. 19).

Visual representations of sound, whether of its

Fig. 15.Chuck Baird, Heart, 1999, mixed media, 14x17(Courtesy of Lisa Weyerhaeuser). Photo: Spike Mafford.

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Fig. 16.Tony Landon McGregor, Three Southwestern Signs, 1999,wood-burned gourd, 18x12.5. (Courtesy of Steve and Nancy Bockand family). Photo: Spike Mafford.

Fig. 17 Irene Bartok, Divine Power, 1996,photograph, 18x20. Photo: Irene Bartok.

presence or absence or ot instalments for the makingof sound, are also frequently encountered in Deal Art.The artist Harry Williams was Known for includingviolins in his works, as in A Violin Becomes on \rtist,where he incorporated fragments of his ou n name at thetop ot the sheet music, much as it to sav he consideredhimself a composer ot \isual music (Fi;i 20). U/iBuzgalo uses waves of colors and dots, along withmusical notation, to make music visible in his Color inWind and /// the Light (Fig 21 and Fig. 22). Perhapsbecause of Buzgalos dance background, his workdepicts Deal people as having "internal music ForMarjone Stout, too, sound is a major ingredient ot herwork. Of her Sound, she says "The sironsi white lineshooting up in the center is the equivalent ot a sharpblast of hisjh pitched sound that I sometimes get, in themidst ol a vast deep space ot constant Hat tones andpitches. In Black and White Deafness with Noise.Stout depicts auditor) static ' floating and lingering

The 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)banned disability-based discrimination in places ofemploy ment, in state and federal agencies, and in publicaccommodations. This was much broader and morepowerful than Section 504 ot the Rehabilitation Act of

1973, w hich had prohibited discrimination in programsreeeiv ing federal hinds. Title IV of the ADA mandatesthat all states provide a 24-hour telephone relay servicefor local and long distance TTY calls. While there werealready some relay services in operation, they wereoften operated on a part time basis; quality variedtremendously from state to state, and many states hadno such services. For the first time. Deaf TTY usersanywhere in the United Slates could reliably maketelephone calls to people who did not have a TTY.

This lowering ot societal barriers is reflected inAlex Wilhite s abstract works His Red Sea has a loneshape floating in lake ot blue water surrounded b\ thecolor red. but the barrier represented by the color redappear to be dissolving in the lower right comer (Fit:25). Wilhite acknowledges the ongoing temptation tofly from communication difficulties in his Spaced qjWings and Wawi stream II, where abstract figuresappearing to move away from necative energy andtowards more positive forms of energ) (Fig. 26 and Fig27).

While the first Deal Studies programs saw theirbeginnings in 1972 and 1973, it was not until 1990 thatnational conferences on Deaf Studies appeared. The

30 Volume 15 Number2 Fall-Winter 1999-2000. Visual Anthropology Review

Fig. 18. PaulJohnston,PoeticHand/, 1998, water-color, 22x29 (courtesy of Clayton Valli). Photo: ArthurS.Aubry.

Fig. 19. Paul Johnston, Poetic Hand II, 1998, water-color, 22x29 (courtesyof Betty G. Miller). Photo: ArthurS.Aubry.

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Fig. 20. Harry R. Williams, A Violin Becomes anArtist, 1983, oil on wood 18x40x1 (courtesy ofBettyG. Miller). Photo:SpikeMafford.

Fig. 21. Uzi Buzaglo, Color in Wind, 1997, acrylicon paper, 30x35. Photo: Arthur S. Aubry.

IFg. 22. Uzi Buzaglo, In the Light, 1997,acrylic on paper, 30x40. Photo: Arthurs.Aubry.

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Fig. 23. Marjorie Stout, Sound, 1990, acrylic, 36x48.Photo: Spike Mafford.

Fig. 24. Marjorie Stout, Black and White: DeafnessWith Noise, 1990, acrylic, 36x48. Photo: SpikeMafford.

Fig 25. Alex Wilhite, Red Sea, 1999, acrylicon canvas, 24x18. Photo: Spike Mafford.

Fig. 26.Alex Wilhte, Waterstreamll, 1999.acrylic on canvas, 80x18. Photo: SpikeMafford.

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Fig. 27. Alex Wilhite, Spaced of Wings, 1998, acrylic on canvas, 18x80.Photo: Spike Mafford.

first two national conferences were both held in 1991,the first in Dallas, Texas and the second at Gallandet.Since then conferences ha\c been held at two-yearintervals, starting in Chicago in 1993 In 1995 theconference was held in Boston, in 1997 at GallaudetUniversity, and in 1999 in Oakland, California.1

Deaf Art exhibits, while not originally designedinto Deaf Studies conferences, became an integral partof these conferences beginning in Chicago in 1993.That Deaf Artists Exhibit, as w ith other exhibits beforeit. has not yet been documented as conforming to thecriteria of Deaf View/Image Art. Th>_ fir t szroupexhibition that is known to be exclusively Deaf View/Image Art was Perspectives of Deaf Culture ThroughArt, which consisted of 32 artworks by 8 Deaf artists andwas mounted in September 1993 at Northern Essex

Community College in Haverhill, Massachusetts. DeafArTist.s Exhibits have accompanied the Deaf StudiesConferences in 1995 1997 and most recently in at thePro Arts Gallery in Oakland. California in April 1999.

Ann Silver was closely involved in the develop-ment of the initial Deaf Artists Exhibit in Chicago, asis natural given the strong links her artwork has withDeaf Studies. Silver expresses political protest andhighlights cultural sensitivity through modifications tosuch familiar graphic symbols as road signs, licenseplates and brand name product packaging. She likensthe medical and pathological views of Deaf people tothe archaic labels of the older style box of crayons inDeaf Identity Crayons: Then and Now, (Fie. 28) whilethe second box shows politically appropriate terms fordifferent groups within the Deaf community. Hearing-

DEAFIDENTITY

Fig. 28. Ann Silver, Deaf Identity Crayons: Then and Now, 1999,mixed media, 20x16. Photo: Spike Mafford.

34 Volume 15 Number2 Fall-Winter 1999-2000 Visual Anthropology Review

Fig. 29. Ann Silver, Deaf & Dumb 1903, Deaf 1993.1993, mixed media,16x20. Photo: Spike Mafford.

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Fig. 30. Ann Silver, Hearing-Impaired: WrongWay, Deaf: Right Way, 1992, mixed media,20x16. Photo: Spike Mafford.

Impaired: Wrong Way/Di(if: Right Way and Deaf &Dumb 1903/Deaf 1993 makes similar side by sidecomparisons of what Silver considers correct andincorrect terminology (Fig. 30 and Rg. 29). Silver hascited the deaf artist Morns Broder.son. whose work wasexhibited in 1960 at the Whitney Museum in New York.as the first influence on her creation of Deaf Art. afterseeing his work incorporating fingerspelling at a speechtraining center in Seattle.

Several Deaf artists who had been unaware of theDe VIA manifesto have been stunned to discover theexistence of such a statement when they received a calltor entries for a Deaf Art exhibit. Emerging Deaf artistswho have had JlttJe contact with the Deaf communityuntil after the first few exhibits may nonetheless havealready produced works of art that reflected their Deafexperience. Often these works have been considered"private" pieces, not meant to be shared, but werebrought out after the artists discovered the Deaf Artgenre and exhibits devoted to it. Artists who had notalready done so found that they were inspired to createworks relating to the Deaf experience.

One objective of Spectrum - Focus on Deaf Artistswas the creation of a touring exhibit of Deaf arts. Therehave since been tours by Deaf performance art compa-nies, including both theater and dance, but the FirstNational Touring Exhibit of Deaf Culture Art is the firstvisual art exhibit to tour the nation. As such, it is anothermajor step - and surely far from the last in buildinga larger audience tor Deaf Art and a lamer publicawareness of the culture from which it springs.

LDGEMENTS

Special thanks to the artists tor permission toreproduce their work.s: Chuck Baird; Irene Bartok, UziBuzgalo; Susan Dupor; Paul Johnston; Thad C. Martin;Tony Landon McGregor, Betty G Miller. JoanPopovich-Kutscher; Orkid Sassouni; Ann Silver;Marjone Stout; Robin Taylor; Sandi Inches Vasnick;and Alex Wilhite.

NOTES

1. H. Lane, When the Mind Hears. New York: RandomHouse. 19X6.2. A. Makipaa, Focus on the human rights dimension ofdeafness. World Federation of the Deaf News, 1993(Feb.). 13-14.3. Lane, H. Hoftmeister, R. and Bahan. B. (1996). AJourney into the Deaf-World. San Diego CA:DawnSignPress. p. 1394. Gannon, J. (1981). Deaf Heritage. Silver Spring MD:National Association of the Deaf. p. 3615 Ibid, p 3656. Ibid, p.3277. Ibid, p.3468. Lane. H. et. al., Journey, p. 1479. Padden. C. & Humphries, T. (1988). Deaf in America:Voices from a culture. Cambridge.MA: Harvard Univer-sity Press, pp. 71-9010. Lane. H , et. al. Journey, p. 14011. Baker, C . and R. Batti.son, eds. 1980. Sign Languageand the Deaf Community. Essay*, in Honor of William C.Stokoe. Siher Spring. Maryland: National Associationof the Deaf. p. xvii12. Lane, H.. et. al. Journey, p. 13913 Langham. B. (1980) Focus on Deaf Artists. ExxonUSA, Houston, Texas. Vol. XIX. No. 2 p. 22-2514. Lane. H . et. al. Jounuy. pp. 139-14015 Ibid., p. 23116. Ibid. p. 14017. Ibid. p. 15618-Elion. L K. (1999). My Eyes Are My Ears: The An ofHarry R. Williams. In College of Continuing Education(Ed.), Deaf studies VI- Making the connection. Proceed-ings of a conference April 8-11, 1999 (pp.37-44). Wash-ington DC: Gallaudet University Press.19. Km/. C. (1999). A Partial History of Deaf Studies. InCollege of Continuing Education (Ed.). Deaf studies VI:Making the connection. Proceedings of a conferenceApril 8-11, 1999 (pp. 1 19-135). Washington DC:Galkiudet University Press.

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