Deaf Artists

Two artists – both trying to make sense of a world they cannot hear. Two artists trying to incorporate their visual language into their artistic world. Two artists who intentionally integrate their worldview and their art. Two artists with radically different perspectives and radically different solutions.

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“Chuck Baird (February 22, 1947 – February 10, 2012) was an American Deaf artist who was one of the more notable founders of the De’VIA art movement, an aesthetic of Deaf Culture in which visual art conveys a Deaf world view.”[Source]

“Christine Sun Kim (1980 – present) Christine Sun Kim is an American sound artist who has been deaf since birth.”[Source]

Chuck Baird began working with the National Theater for the Deaf as a painter and actor. Eventually he formed a group of artists who sought to integrate the Deaf experience into their art. He created beautiful paintings of nature which included American Sign Language.

His paintings are both beautiful and thoughtful. They make you ponder how using a visual language (instead of a vocal/auditory language) makes you see the world in a different way. His paintings make you pause to appreciate the beauty – beauty of the creation; beauty of people; beauty of ASL. The unexpected presence of signing hands in his paintings make you ponder the beauty and artistry inherent in American Sign Language.

He wrote, “”I no longer paint what people would like to see. I paint for myself. It is about my own experience, my love of ASL and pride in our Deaf heritage. I sometimes create works that have no particular relation to the Deaf.”[Source]

Facing a world filled with sound that he could not enter, he sought to help others enter his world. He used artwork as a way to introduce others to the visual language through which he apprehended the world. He found a vocation in sharing his experience and culture as a Deaf American with those whose culture provided a different view of the world.

“I am no longer interested in whether I am a Deaf artist or an artist who happens to be deaf. I have accepted being either cultured Deaf or hard of hearing; that’s fine with me. But what makes me an artist, that really matters. The process is the power of creativity and all the gifts inside and from the surrounding environment. It is so much more fun that way. The brush becomes so free, and speaks or moves for itself.”[Source]

I wonder if his confidence had anything to do with the fact that Chuck Baird was more than a Deaf Artist – he was a Christian.

Chuck could rest secure because he knew that He was redeemed, valued, and identified – in Christ! His talent was a gift from God that He could use to bring God glory. He saw the world as beautiful because there was a Creator who made it beautiful. Chuck could portray the beauty of the human hand in ASL because language is a way of expressing God’s Image in us. Chuck’s paintings were full, and contained meaning and purpose because he served a God who created a beautifully full world with both purpose and meaning; Chuck could tell a story because He knew the Ultimate Story Teller: Jesus Christ.

What a stark contrast to Christine Sun Kim! Kim saw a world of sound – and believed that it was a force of oppression used to deny her value.

She sought to force her way into a world that she could not hear or appreciate. Finding a world of sound which she could not apprehend, she decided that sound was the social currency of power and value. She believed that the world was defined by sound – etiquette, value, and meaning were all defined by sound.

But Christine is profoundly deaf. She has no awareness of sound. And this shuts her out from the world, cutting her off from culture and community. She insists that she has no voice and no value – yet is valued by many because she speaks out against her oppression.

Ted Talk: The Enchanting Music of Sign Language

She wants others to appreciate the beauty of ASL and its ability to inflect meaning – in a way more similar to music than English – but cannot appreciate what she has herself. She is part of a vibrant artistic community, speaks a complete language that is shared by several million others, has a platform to speak to the world, and is part of a community of others just like herself. But she cannot appreciate it because she has bought the lie that she is a victim.

“As a deaf person living in a world of sound, it’s as if I was living in a foreign country, blindly following its rules, customs, behaviors, and norms without ever questioning them,” she said. “I’m always waiting in eager nervous anticipation around sound, about what’s to come next.”

Her paintings are simple; stark; barren. They convey a message that cannot be understood – like Christine cannot understand the message conveyed in sound. The smudges and shadows suggest missed meaning and the constant presence of sound.

She tries to convey the motion and expression of ASL in her art, but fails to communicate that meaning or touch the heart of her viewer. She has chosen a medium that she cannot access and tried to express it visually in order to demonstrate the oppressive power of sound. Her identity is found in having no identity of her own. Or perhaps she does – as a victim of an oppressive system. Her identity is bound by the power and cruelty of the world around her.

As she thought about sound and the way it defined the world, she “realized: sound is like money, power, control—social currency. And sound is so powerful that it could either disempower me and my artwork, or it could empower me. I chose to be empowered.”[Source]

But by choosing to be empowered, she must redefine sound to make it something that she can control even though she can’t hear it – in protest to the world being controlled by it.

I am struck once more by the difference your worldview can make. Both Chuck and Christine are profoundly Deaf. Both recognize that they experience the world differently than hearing people. Both are artists who want to share their Deaf experience with hearing viewers. Both are trying to show ASL’s 3-D motion on a 2-D canvas. Both are seeking to incorporate their worldview into their artistic work.

And yet, the differences are striking. Christine sees oppression, power, and currency everywhere – but she has no access to it. She believes that she is unable to communicate – and communicates that vision by simple lines, blank pages, and charcoal smudges. Her identity is fragile because it is defined by those around her and is ever changing. Chuck sees beauty, order, and meaning in the world – and he is able to communicate that in his work. His identity is secure because it has been defined by One above him.

Perhaps I am not so different. I also see the world in a particular way and try to share that vision through stories. I have chosen a vocal medium to express a much fuller world. I too struggle to find my identity. Like Christine and Chuck, I must decide if this world (beautiful and painful as it is) contains meaning or order – or if I am trapped by a cycle of meaningless oppression. I must decide who will define my value – the ones around me or the One above me? Every day I make decisions which communicate the way I view the world and my beliefs about my place in it. Every day I must decide – am I victim? Or a chosen child?