|
![[GO]](../images/gobtn.gif){kind=small}
|
Deaf Art Curator to Discuss Deaf Culture Through the Eyes of Deaf Artists 
April 7, 2000 -- Art often represents the personal perspectives of the artist as well as the artist's culture. This is never more evident than in the works of most Deaf artists. Brenda Schertz, curator of a year-long, seven city national touring Deaf Art exhibition featuring the works of 16 Deaf artists, will discuss how or if Deaf Culture has influenced these artists. Her presentation, "Deaf Art: Visualizing Deaf Culture", will take place on Tuesday, April 11, at 7 p.m. in McLeod Hall Auditorium at the University of Virginia. Deaf people make up a separate, distinct and proud culture. Deaf artists identify themselves not as persons with a disability - "little 'd' deaf" - but as members of a linguistic minority - "capital 'D' Deaf" - hence not something to be "fixed" but people to be celebrated. Deaf Art is like other genres of minority art in communicating universals of minority oppression and bonding. Deaf Art expresses the values of Deaf Culture: the beauty of sign language and its painful oppression, the joys of Deaf bonding, communication breakdowns between signers and non-signers, the discovery of language and community, and the history of Deaf people. Deaf Art or, more precisely, Deaf View Image Art (De'VIA), is a genre that uses formal art elements to express the "innate cultural or physical deaf experience." Deaf Art is created when the artist intends to express their Deaf experience through visual art. Sign Language is not just a means of communication for Deaf people but a cherished art form in its own right. Paul Johnston and Chuck Baird use images of the hand as important icons in their work. Paul conveys some of the visual lyricism of sign language in his watercolors, "Poetic Hands 1 and 2". Chuck Baird's "Art No. 2" depicts both the tools of the artist's trade and the sign for art. The stark simplicity of Orkid Sassouni's black and white photographs highlights the unrestrained expressiveness of her Deaf subjects in her "Being Deaf and Free Spirit". Both Betty G. Miller and Ann Silver give political voices to the history of Deaf people. Betty G. Miller's scathing commentary on the oppression of sign language is evident in "Ameslan Prohibited". ("Ameslan" is a now-obsolete contraction of "American Sign Language.") The pen and ink drawing shows handcuffed hands with dismembered fingers. Ann Silver likens the medical and pathological views of Deaf people to boxed and labeled crayons in "Deaf Identity Crayons: Then and Now." Communication barriers are another linking theme in the exhibit, expressed by Susan Dupor and Thad Martin. Susan Dupor portrays feelings typical to isolated deaf children living in non-signing hearing families in "Family Dog". The faces of other members of the family are blurred, indicating the similarities between lipreading and the experience of listening to a TV program disrupted by static. "Articulatus" by Thad Martin is a composition of heads telling a wordless story of a deaf experience: from an awakening to one's sense of self, through a struggle for footing in the hearing world, to an affirmation one's wholeness and acceptance of the journey to come. Schertz attended the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Graphic Design from the Art Institute of Boston. As a part of an independent study project in art history at the Art Institute of Boston in 1992, Schertz began to study Deaf Art. Information gathered in that project grew into the exhibition of Deaf Art held at Northern Essex Community College in September 1993. This is believed to have been the first exhibition devoted to works that meet De'VIA (Deaf View Image Art) criteria. Interest generated by this exhibition led to a second exhibition at the Deaf Studies IV Conference in the spring of 1995. Schertz currently is a sign language instructor and serves in a variety of other capacities at Northeastern University. She directed, taught and acted with the Boston Theatre of the Deaf, and obtained grants for and participated in arts-in-residence programs at two schools. She also served as a consultant and tour guide at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Quota International honored Ms. Schertz for her dedication to the Deaf Community with their International Deaf Woman of the Year Award in 1995. The presentation is free and open to the public. Voice interpretation will be provided for non-signers. Posters and exhibit catalogs from the national Deaf Art exhibition tour will be available for sale. Co-sponsors of the popular Series are the U.Va. Office of the Vice President and Provost, U.Va. American Sign Language Program, Deafness, Education, Awareness For all Students (DEAFS); and the Parents' Program of the U.Va. Fund. For more information or directions, contact Lisa J. Berke at ljb9r@Virginia.edu or fax 804-924-1478. |
|
|
FOR
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: please contact
the Office of University Relations at (804) 924-7116. Television
reporters should contact the TV News Office at (804) 924-7550. |
 |
|
Top news site edited by Jane
Ford (jford@virginia.edu); maintained
by Karen
Asher (kac@virginia.edu); releases posted
by Suzanne Raileanu (sr3r@virginia.edu). |