Auslan storytellers affirm Deaf experiences and diverse, complex identities, in an immersive exhibition of large-scale video projections, which bring visitors into a Deaf world. In this collaboration of over seventy Deaf and hearing allies, empowered Deaf storytellers draw on decolonising strategies of truth-telling, provocation, and self-representation, to challenge audist colonisation of Deaf lives, bodies, language and knowledges.

“In Auslan, we pass stories from hand to hand. Our stories cannot be put on a page, detached from us. When we tell stories through sign language, our whole body, mind, emotion, and inner self is also expressed. Our signed stories carry culture. They are a site of resistance and pride.” – Chelle Destefano.

Shared with humour, wit, courage, and care, What I Wish I’d Told You transforms the Art Space into a Deaf space and Deaf Cultural experience.

What I Wish I’d Told You is supported by the Victorian College of the Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music at the University of Melbourne, Australia Council, Creative Victoria, Regional Arts Victoria, City of Melbourne, the West Space/ Footscray Community Arts Commission, Hyphen Wodonga Commission and the Maroondah Arts and Culture Grant.

Printed catalogue available. Request a catalogue

image: Claire Bridge and Chelle Destefano, Lost, with Ida Rogers, in What I Wish I’d Told You, 2022, installation view, ArtSpace at Realm