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FINDING ME & LISTEN
My work explores the intersection between personal identity, deafness
awareness, and visual media. As a Nigerian woman who moved to the UK at
the age of three and underwent cochlear implant surgery, my personal history
and experiences inform my creative practice.
Through my work, I aim to raise awareness about the challenges faced by the
Deaf community, including discrimination and communication barriers.
SIGNS OF SILENCE - PART TWO
As a deaf woman, ‘Signs of Silence’ explores hand gestures and facial expressions I make when signing BSL (British Sign Language). The gestures I use to express myself become shape, texture, movement, an art form.
The self-portraits will be exhibited alongside a video depicting how I react to sound and silence as a deaf person, with and without my cochlear implant.
SENESE - PART ONE
This project explores the silence and noise in the landscape from a deaf person’s perspective. In the quiet empty landscape as I walk through, I can feel the detailed texture of the objects and nature. I can feel fresh wind, the leaves falling from the tree soft as a feather and the vibration of footsteps close by.
Although the landscape is silent for a hearing person, for me it is noisy, as my senses are awakened with feelings, vibration, visuals, and my peripheral vision observing the nature around me. For me, the environment is alive when it becomes silent.
My work aims to show how I experience the world through my eyes and deafness. We (deaf people) rely on our eyes and sight to observe rather than our ears which makes our ability to perceive moving objects and external vision capabilities more enhanced through our visual attention. We do not just depend on one sense but on the other senses we can use such as sight and touch.
In the video, I want the audience to have an understanding and experience of how it feels to be deaf. I want them to experience the silent world. The video shows how I experience walking through the landscape without using the ability to hear. It represents understanding without the sound. To rely on other senses will give you have a better visual experience. A gist of walking in deaf people's footsteps in silence. (A way of experiencing life through a deaf person’s perspective).
SOUND & SILENCE
What is it like for a deaf person to live in a silent world? How do we communicate and express ourselves? I have based my FMP on my own story and the experiences of other people both deaf and hearing. My project documents the challenges and triumphs deaf and hearing people face when communicating with each other. Most importantly, it celebrates the beauty and the art of communication, whatever form it takes and reminds us that sign language is not a barrier but a gateway to our world.
"We are the same. We just speak to different language"- (by Lara S 2018)
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