Intimacy of Experience of Being Innovative Deaf Artist – The Case of American Deaf Art

Abstract

The uniqueness of Deaf culture results partly from the nature of deafness itself, from the visual perception of the world by deaf people, and partly from group life of deaf people. It is also related to ubiquitous hidden discrimination of deaf and hard of hearing people in societies, not only in Poland.
The article aims to show the history of a specific and innovative "trend" in art, i.e., deaf art, and Deaf artists born in the United States in the 1970s, which speaks loudly about Deaf culture itself and is a manifesto of the identity and pride of being a Deaf artist. The works of American deaf artists discussed in this article (including Chuck Baird, Nancy Rourke, Christine Sun Kim, Ann Silver, Dr. Betty Miller, Susan Dupor, Patti Durr, Arnauld Balard and David Call) go beyond the categories of fine arts. They seem to belong to the category of interdisciplinary matters with a strong social aspect.
At the same time, deaf art is a form of rebellion against the existing situation, raising the importance of the experience and intimacy of being a Deaf person, and the importance of not depreciating the word "deaf". Saying "I'm deaf" is an expression of taking pride in one’s own identity. This type of process of reversing the meaning of a given term in the environment of people with disabilities may refer to the crip theory and involves reversing the meaning of an offensive, discriminatory term towards an affirmative and meaningful identification. This process is associated with the need to reject or transform normative, usually ableist, categories used to recognize and "order" reality and identity.

Through de-coincidence, deaf artists cross the boundaries of previous ways of expression,
discovering new forms that were previously unavailable. Deaf art therefore becomes a constant process of discovering and creating new possibilities.
It is worth mentioning, that the artworks of Polish deaf artists in the spirit of American deaf art and paintings of Nancy Rourke were shown at the pioneering Głusza/Deafland exhibition at the Silesian Museum, telling the story of the language and culture of the deaf community in Poland. The author was the curator of the above-mentioned exhibition.