COLLECTION:
“AGB”
Painting
Acrylic on canvas, 34x48”, 2012
This is De’VIA Resistance art.
AGB is short for Alexander Graham Bell. This painting described the significant part of Deaf history in the 1880, when the Milan Conference announced to ban sign language among the deaf individuals, and AGB was the leader during the period. The middle finger is the same size as AGB to show that he is not above us. The colors and emotions represented the Deaf community who fought against the oppression, resistant to his belief in omitted sign language, and acknowledged how far we have come to fight and opposed to the Oralism. The flesh heart represented Deafhood and it is in the hand of AGB. A controversial comparison with the left brick wall, valuable jars of a mouth and ear organs, in opposition to the green clinical wall, the burning furnace with “ASL” written in English, and to throw away the hands and bodies into the fumes. On the top of the furnace is a faucet, which indicated his clean up act by hiding it away from the truth. The gold chains is a well known symbol of oppression and the color gold means making profits out of oppression.
“What is Deaf Education?: Top Part”
Painting
Acrylic on canvas, 24x36", 30x30", 2011
The top painting goes with the bottom painting vertically. They describe my personal experience when I went through some complications among several schools such as special education program, oralism, IEP, resource room, and other methods of provision. I didn’t have the privilege to receive equal education as other students did. There are a lot of symbolism in this pieces. A gold crown on his ear is hearing privilege. The bell is a symbol of systematic power. His facial expression defined his authoritative position. A rotten apple, fishbone, empty plate, skeletons, and bones= starving for the access to receive equal education. The excessive snake body is the man of the top painting. Bison represents Gallaudet University (GU is the only deaf university in the world.) With a skeleton fist of saying, “YEAH!” is the Deaf pride. A table symbolized the barriers, the skeletons signed some words such as, “No, stop, and enough!” The rest of hand bones on the ground, in the ocean, were the people who experienced the same struggle.
“What is Deaf Education?: Bottom Part”
Painting
Acrylic on canvas, 24x36", 30x30", 2011
The top painting goes with the bottom painting vertically. They describe my personal experience when I went through some complications among several schools such as special education program, oralism, IEP, resource room, and other methods of provision. I didn’t have the privilege to receive equal education as other students did. There are a lot of symbolism in this pieces. A gold crown on his ear is hearing privilege. The bell is a symbol of systematic power. His facial expression defined his authoritative position. A rotten apple, fishbone, empty plate, skeletons, and bones= starving for the access to receive equal education. The excessive snake body is the man of the top painting. Bison represents Gallaudet University (GU is the only deaf university in the world.) With a skeleton fist of saying, “YEAH!” is the Deaf pride. A table symbolized the barriers, the skeletons signed some words such as, “No, stop, and enough!” The rest of hand bones on the ground, in the ocean, were the people who experienced the same struggle.
“Language Deprivation”
Painting
Acrylic on canvas, 36 x 48”, 2013
This painting is about my brother’s three months stay at the hospital. His experiences with the doctors, nurses, and interpreters were intense. I visited him every day, the communication with the doctors, nurses, and interpreters were hard on both of us. The three vertical red lines and a horizontal red line on the bottom symbolized as the Hebrew letter, Shin. The letter shin has profound meanings for the Judaism. In this painting, it described as three red columns; justice, mercy, and kindness.
The top left is a picture of creepy hall at the hospital. The doctor just came out from my brother’s room, the first thing you noticed are doctor’s feet because they are not human figure. The doctor’s chicken feet represented a sign in American Sign Language for “awkward”. The sitting baby figure is me, which demonstrated that I was treated like a baby because I was not able to communicate verbally. The third person is the shadow of ASL interpreter, knelt on the floor and signed, “This patient…” in his writing. The shadow interpreter, the sitting baby, and the doctor created a strong triangle symbol. The interpreter’s ankle is chained to the next part, Sorenson Video Relay Service ASL interpreter with yellow eyes and red pupils, red horns, and overly paranoid facial expression. Her hands are stringed like puppets to the doctor’s mouth.
On the bottom left are two large scale of signs for “interpreter”. The bottom right is the picture of my living room, I was in a sitting position, the colorful sneakers stomped on the wooden floor to create the vibration, which represented the Deaf culture and my emotions toward the VRS. Another large scale of a sign for “where”, and point the finger at my brother. The perspective of hospital room is distorted, my brother laid on the bed and his hands are chopped off because of the lack of access to communicate. The mouth symbol on the blanket showed that the nurses came into his room and spoke to him, oppressed him with the power of speaking instead of signing. The knives symbolized the emotions that my brother felt. The papers are flying everywhere to illustrate that there were a lot of writing on the paper communication system. The sign hanged in his room writes in his, “Deaf and Violent”.