|
email publication
of the signing community
about
on the spot:
|
Clerc Scar 4.220 July 2009
=====
=====
Today we visit a specific Deaf View/Image Art (De'VIA) artist and artwork. Chuck Baird is one of the nine signators of the De'VIA manifesto and is recognized for his paintings of animals with their ASL signs incorporated into the artwork. He does a masterful job of playing off the iconicity of ASL by choosing signs that are easily understood. As one of my students recently remarked, "For us Chuck Baird's work is obvious and very affirming, for non-signers it could appear to be abstract . . ." As with many artists, Chuck Baird has created in other media than just oil paint. He has also worked in wood and mixed media. A great deal of his work, complete with descriptions and notes, can be viewed at Chuck's Brushes http://chuckbaird.com/. Most recently, he was commissioned by Communication Services for the Deaf to make a series of artworks representing various important people from Deaf history. These works include artifacts from material culture, photographs, quotes, and a few chosen signs painted by Chuck that capture what that Deaf individual stood for.
"Scrabble" is a mixed media work by Chuck Baird. It uses a common board game but places it in a Deaf context. Four tile holders are positioned around the scrabble board as if each are competing in the game against each other. The text on the board running down and across are commonly used words such as hotdog, icecream, and airplane. These two-syllable words are often used in speech discrimination tests in the audiology lab; the Spondee word recognition test is one example. Many Deaf people immediately recognize these familiar terms. Some of these terms also appear in the work of Betty G. Miller--the mother of De'VIA--usually prefaced by the command, "Say the word . . ." The absent players of the game are identified via the letter tiles on each of the four tile holders. The one on the left holding four tiles spells out DEAF, the one on the right has eight tiles separated by a gap and spells out LATE DEAF, the one on top has nine tiles which read DEAF BLIND, and the one on the bottom consists of only two letters H H, signifying Hard-of-Hearing. This work may appear to be very iconic or self-explanatory to Deaf viewers, but for the uninitiated it may just simply appear to be a mild form of pop art. To fully understand the artwork, the viewer must have the cultural context of what each of the labels have in common. Hard-of-hearing, deaf, late deaf and deaf-blind people have all experienced some form of audiological testing in their lives. They have all been framed by the labels assigned to them by such testing. Many have marveled at the speech-hearing professionals' limited creativity by their inability to come up with a longer and more interesting variety of two-syllable words to test with. The object of the Scrabble game is to score the highest points and to get rid of all the tiles in your tile holder. It would be difficult to use up all of the remaining letters while simultaneously filling up the board with object words used to measure, label, and frame Deaf and Deaf-Blind people. The missing component in Baird's "Scrabble" is perhaps the most intriguing: Who are the players that sit before each tile holder?
=====
=====
We are always open to submissions. Submit your writing, artwork, or video to editor@clercscar.com. To subscribe, email subscribe@clercscar.com with the message "Subscribe daily" or "Subscribe weekly." To unsubscribe, email subscribe@clercscar.com with the message "Unsubscribe me." Visit our archives or bookstore at http://www.clercscar.com. Copyright 2009 by Clerc Scar. All rights reserved. |
