Audism is the belief that the ability to hear makes one superior to those with hearing loss, while research shows that the ‘lack of information in one sense (e.g., audition) somehow instigates the deprived cortical area to process information from the intact modalities (e.g., vision and touch)’[1].
Hearing and not hearing presents different opportunities in perception.
Working in collaboration, photo-video-installation artists Katrina Garvey and Lisa Kurtz have used attentive listening and responsive iterative visual production as a methodology, largely removing the privilege of the spoken word for sense-making.
This exhibition explores ideas about the unknown and ‘other’. Building on these themes already present in the artists’ practices the collaboration works to create a reciprocation between hearing/ not hearing, knowing/ not knowing.
As there is nothing inherent in a space that makes it deaf or hearing, the exhibition produces a temporary porous space between cultures. The artists invite the audience to become intermediaries between the cultures, actors in the experience of other ways of knowing.
Opening Event: Thursday, 23 March, 5.30pm – 7.30pm
Artist Talk: Saturday 25 March, 10am
An Auslan interpreter will be present at both events.
Katrina Garvey is a profoundly prelingually d/Deaf artist. Katrina’s practice explores deafness, sexuality, gender and language through photography, video and installation.
Lisa Kurtz is a Brisbane|Meanjin-based photographic artist whose work explores ideas of uncomfortableness within memory, place and time.
[1] Merabet L. B., Pascual-Leone A. Neural reorganization following sensory loss: The opportunity of change. Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 2010;11:44–52
