Greater Dandenong creative artists are diving deep into how deaf-authored knowledge and perspectives have been collected throughout history.
The $15,000 State Library Victoria Fellowship has equipped artists Rebecca and Avni Dauti to create a unique lecture performance in Auslan.
Their project named “Faed” – deaf spelt backwards – engages with deaf history from mid-19 century to early 20th century looking at the impact of Victorian ideas of education on deaf culture.
The fellowship also provides an office at the State Library, just next to the iconic domed reading room for one year, and one-on-one support from a specialist librarian.
“It’s kind of the first really big opportunity we’ve had in Melbourne and it’s really an honour because our project was selected,” Rebecca says.
“It’s just wonderful to know that the State Library of Victoria really acknowledges the importance of the research and the project and that it was an area really warranting attention.”
The unique project looks at the widespread attempt to prevent deaf people from using sign language in favour of speaking, a practice known as oralism.
It also looks at how deaf-authored knowledge is interpreted and missing from the library’s archives.
“It can be difficult to access information, especially history and accounts of history that are authored by deaf people rather than educators or people in the medical profession,” Rebecca says.
“We just thought it was a really interesting conceptual frame for the project.”
Deaf history has been the centre of the couple’s international artistic journey of more than a decade, exploring deaf language and cultural memory through ongoing dialogue with deaf communities internationally.
This fellowship is one of a kind, with Avni possibly the first ever deaf person to receive such a fellowship.
“We’ve been working for many years together and were really looking for the right support at the time.
“And so with the fellowship, it was that automatic support, everything was ready to go. It looked like it was a perfect fit for us.”
Rebecca and Avni will create a videoed lecture performance in Auslan featuring an original signed text and images from the Library’s collection.
The project takes its name from Arthur James Wilson – pseudonym ‘Faed’ – a deaf writer, cyclist and inventor credited with inventing the wing mirror.
His invention serves as inspiration for the project’s aim to look forward and backward simultaneously.
They stumbled on the project idea from Mr Wilson’s resource in the state library.
“One kind of little titbit that we learned about him was that he is credited with inventing the wing mirror,” Rebecca said.
“We thought it was a lovely story and a really apt metaphor for how one is often required to look at deaf history, which is marginalised within big institutions like the State Library in Victoria.
“That was an important time for the deaf community because two really important deaf cultural institutions were first established in the late 1800s.
“They were the first physical brick and mortar spaces designed for the deaf community.”
Their work has been shown at the Welcome Collection (London), National Museum of Art (Lithuania), Federation Square (Naarm/Melbourne) and Garage Museum of Contemporary Art (Moscow), as well as at international film festivals and conferences.
