“Most Deafinately Street”: Illustrating the trials and tribulations of the deaf minority within modern day society, through the medium of urban art.
A series of A1 canvases aimed to create a real awareness of the deaf community amongst the present day public.
Each canvas' layout has been formulated to work in an order that links them altogether. Each piece illustrates an individual quote that I (Nigel Sharman) have been touched by whilst I've researched into deaf societies, cultures and stories and each is taken from a personal account. A quote from one of the pieces highlights a hearing person’s ignorance to deafness; a hard of hearing man is asked, if there were a pill he could take where he could wake up with normal hearing, would he take it. He replies asking if she would take a ‘white’ pill if she was black or if she would take a ‘man’ pill being a woman. The second piece celebrates the wit of a deaf employer whose hearing employee takes his deafness for granted and in turn receives a nasty but clever shock from his deaf employee. The third piece shows a hearing person trying to understand a deaf person’s situation, questioning themselves and what it is like to be deaf. All these quotes, illustrated in this fashion, entice the audience to view them and to establish meaning so that the deaf person’s viewpoint is better understood.
The reason behind creating this series of artworks is to raise awareness of the struggles of deafness in society and to portray being deaf not as being victimised or being inferior but merely as equals. My (Nigel's) interest to explore this arose from my upbringing by my profoundly deaf mother and my late, hard-of-hearing father and their effort with social prejudice against them during my childhood. My experiences of their struggle over the years made me extremely passionate to depict my feelings and communicate my understandings as well as their emotions to the public.
