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https://www.3cr.org.au/tuesday-breakfast/episode/umsu-passes-motion-supporting-palestine-fiona-patten-health-legislation
Transcript below:
3CR, 855AM Community Radio, Tuesday Breakfast radio interview
Published Tues, August 16th 2022
SPEAKERS
Claire Bridge, Genevieve, Chelle Destefano and interpreter.
Interview commences from 1:08
https://www.3cr.org.au/tuesday-breakfast/episode/umsu-passes-motion-supporting-palestine-fiona-patten-health-legislation
Genevieve 00:12
Tuesday breakfast and it's just clicked over to 8:07am. I'm very lucky to be joined in the studio with some in person guests. That's always nice to have in person guests, especially post COVID. So they're in to chat about ‘What I Wish I Told You’, which is an exhibition currently on at Footscray Community Arts center and runs until the end of August. The show centers deaf voices, identity, language and culture, where empowered deaf storytellers draw on decolonizing strategies of truth telling, provocation and self-representation to challenge audist colonization of Deaf lives, bodies, language and knowledges, with large scale video projections. Claire bridge and Chelle Destefano both of the Deaf community and Deaf allies and artists themselves. The creators of this beautifully created curated show and they join us live in the studio to discuss the exhibition. Thank you so much for joining us, Chelle and Claire. It would help if I put your microphones on, wouldn't it?
Claire Bridge 01:32
It’s Claire. Thanks, Genevieve.
Geneveive 01:37
All righty, so
Chelle Destefano 01:41
I just want to say thanks as well. I'm Chelle and I'm been working collaboratively with Claire on this project, which we’ve been leading. And it's about Deaf empowerment, as you said before Genevieve. When we went to go and set it up, we thought we'd utilize firstly three different spaces, and we have one tripod (screen) set up, which does have multiple projections or three projections. And we have the videos of the storytellers which are separately shown on the tripod. And then another visual for captions. We have one set up which is vertical and another screen as well, which shows some horizontal captions. So that's the general setup of the art pieces and the artwork. We also have some captions on the screens, with the videos. There are multimedia visual displays. And it's a representation of Deaf voices. For those voices to be to be heard their stories to be told, and it's very empowering. They really talk about having a site of resistance and being able to express their stories in Auslan.
It's also a celebration of Deafness and being Deaf. Throughout the exhibition people are guided through that journey. We have two smaller rooms as well. One with a suitcase that has a projection. There's a little bit of a design to suit that projection and having that on site and visually represented in that room.
We then have two vertical TV screens which show a portrait view and they have the presenters or deaf storytellers. We have David Grant, who is there doing a sign of the day. We have collected a group of videos so you can see him being represented in that portrait view and telling those stories. It's really immersive.
It's amazing to watch. There's some fun storytelling. There’s some deeper storytelling as well. There are a variety of topics including Deaf culture. First Nations people, Muslim Deaf people, Asian Deaf people, people of colour. We have queer identifying Deaf people, deaf blind people. So we have a really multicultural approach. We also have hearing people who do the voiceovers for those pieces, and they're really well matched to those artists. And they're not just interpreters who do the voiceover we have professional voiceover artists and collaborative artists who work with us and Claire was working very closely in that space. So I'll hand it back to you, Genevieve and Claire.
Genevieve 04:55
Yeah, it sounds like an incredible and as you are saying an immersive exhibition with such a diverse array of people showcased. I did want to talk about, you know, the idea for this exhibition and obviously, you know, representing the deaf community and really showcasing Deaf people in art. But how did the idea come about? Maybe we can start off with Chelle and then go to Claire? Yep.
Chelle Destefano 05:37
Yeah, I actually will pass it over to Claire first, I'll go next Claire. I’ve already said my piece.
Claire Bridge 05:41
Thanks, Chelle. So we, we were really thinking about this in the very early days of the pandemic and Melbourne was in such a sudden and long lockdown. And thinking about culturally how many people are isolated generally, like there's a general feeling of isolation and separation, and how that impacts our sense of distance and alienation from each other, which then of course, causes even more or magnifies divisions. So one of the things that we're thinking about is how can we bring people together and how can we really connect this community, this Deaf community, especially during a time like this? And also thinking about especially overseas there were many people that were separated from each other and didn't have an opportunity to say what was needed to be said before people passed away. So we thought ‘What I wish I told you…” is a great prompt for people to respond. Really in any way they wanted. So we did a call out to community and friends and connections and really gave people agency to respond however they felt was right for them. Whether that was a personal story, you know, from the past about someone that was an inspiration or someone that they needed to talk back to. So there might have been some challenges or conflicts or, you know, these stories cover so many topics, whether it's audist experiences or you know, they can be stories like, you know, children being removed from Deaf mothers, and these kinds of things still happen. So this institutional or systemic audism as well. But also very inspiring stories about Deaf Pride and culture. So that's how it came about. And Chelle and I decided this was something that we would love to do together, because we were actually studying together at the time, which was amazing.
Genevieve.
Nice.
Claire Bridge
Yeah.
Chelle Destefano 07:39
Yeah, and I was just so lucky. And I felt so fortunate that Claire and I had the opportunity to be studying together and we already knew that we worked really well together. We had good collaboration between the two of us. We could communicate. So it was just an incredible experience.
And I also felt that giving Deaf people empowerment was really what we were looking at, as Claire said, you know, a lot of people were isolated and displaced. We had the colonization of Deaf people, which we wanted to highlight. We wanted to encourage that resistance to that colonization and encourage decolonization. We thought about people who didn't have a home or a safe space to really consider their own ideologies, their own culture. Feeling whether or not we could create that space, would it be a social space? And then from there, we really thought well, at the moment with so much displacement and separation and divide throughout the community, how do we create that centralized space so people can come together?
And we're hoping that Deaf clubs will start to emerge again. We previously had Deaf clubs, but due to the colonization they often were very dispersed and they had closures. And just recently when we were talking about the exhibition, we had actually a Deaf club on the 23rd of July for the opening event, and so many members of the community came and we had maybe 20 or 30 people who are live streaming and coming together as well via the use of technology. And we saw many different Deaf people and such a range of people who are there who are able to connect and tell their stories and it was really impactful. So we thought with the exhibition, that's, you know, the perfect idea is to explore some of those stories exhibit those stories and that connection, and it would just have such a profound impact on Deaf people.
We have some drawing art pieces as well. Which is the title obviously, of the exhibition, which is “What I wish I told you”. So we had an artist do some drawings for that. And it's just been amazing to see how many people have gotten involved, and the empowering experience that everyone's going through. We're hoping for it to really continue and flourish from here.
Genevieve 10:02
Wow, yeah, it seems like such a beautiful collaboration of community as well and especially after obviously, the pandemic, having those kinds of resources and art is such an important resource to rebuild that connection in community. I wanted to talk about, you know, you mentioned that exhibition is prominently large-scale projections. Why was this chosen as like the main sort of communication or main sort of art format, within the exhibition? And yeah, what did you want it to kind of evoke?
Chelle Destefano 10:47
Well, we chose that because it's, you know, such a strong visual medium and such a strong visual platform. With having life-size people being able to be displayed via that medium which is fantastic and having deaf people tell their stories in a life-size format. So people can really connect in with their stories and their storytelling. So they can have a look at somebody in their full human form and engage with their stories. And it feels like they're having a conversation with the person or feels like they're really there with the person to better engage with them. And it really just shows proof, how storytelling can impart experiences and for it to really be engaging for people. So now we really are looking forward to creating that space or further creating a space for deaf people to come together.
Claire Bridge 11:43
I’ll add to that, too. So one of the things that we've done in the show is as Chelle was describing this tripod of big screens in the main gallery. We took the projections off the wall. So, there we've changed the way that the artworks are viewed there. They can be seen from either front or the rear. So, it's really very much in the round. And part of this was to emphasize sign language itself, which is three dimensional and moving through space. So that's part of it, but also to really centre, physically, these Deaf people and Deaf stories in gallery spaces, which have historically really excluded Deaf community. And not have not been as accessible or maybe as inviting or as… or the kind of safe spaces where Deaf people have felt they can participate and engage actively. So, this is about Deaf people and Deaf presences right in the middle of the gallery.
Genevieve 12:41
Yeah, yeah. And I really want to talk about the title because I think it's such a beautiful title. Obviously, it's called “What I Wish I Told You”, and I wanted to ask about why you chose this as the title of the exhibition?
Chelle Destefano 13:02
Yeah, absolutely. It just felt like such a right title for us because so many people suppress what it is they really want to say to people and suppress their own experiences. So a lot of people in our community have had regrets. So they often say, “I'm too late.” “I've just missed the point.” “I really wish I had said this”, or, “I wish I had responded in this way” . So people miss out due to having a fear of retaliation or having that resistance in that time. So this is about being able to say the right thing at the right time when you're intending on saying it and how that impacts people. So people haven't had the ability to respond how they wish they would have liked to respond to a certain situation. That could have been something that occurred, you know, 20 years ago, and now they have the opportunity to express it. And to really think about those situations and show people that if they had another way to express it or if they had their time again, they would have said this that or the other. Yeah, absolutely.
Genevieve 14:12
Yeah. And I think, you know, it hints at so many different facets of you know, what's left untold, what's communicated in different ways. So yeah, I really, really love that title. And also, I wanted to touch on you know, this exhibition is obviously about collaboration. Collaborating with, you know, the Deaf community and Deaf allies, and also exploring you know, a really diverse array of people to get involved. You know, why was collaboration such an important part of the exhibition? And, you know, how does… how has this impacted your own individual practices within the exhibition?
Claire Bridge 15:04
Collaboration is a really amazing framework in which to work and especially with community. It's so important to allow the space for different voices and different perspectives to emerge. But also to inform each other. And I think that the Arts is a field where, you know, the individual can be kind of a platformed or pedestalled and there's that tradition of, you know, “the white male artist” and this kind of culture around that which supports the individual. But this is also perhaps part of some of the problematics in our culture in general, where we kind of highlight an individual and their, you know, this one perspective or this one voice. So, in this exhibition, collaboration itself, is a really important framework in order to kind of shift societal perspectives and the Deaf voices that are presented, present perspectives that many hearing people or non-signing people may not have been aware of previously. And in that way that, through story, can connect to these experiences in a very real and personal way. And it's that kind of thing which touches your own life, which can help change the way that people behave and respond. So we kind of think about it in terms of like emergent strategies - a way to, yes, shift society through engaging, and invitation.
Genevieve 16:37
Yeah, I love that idea of invitation.
Chelle Destefano 16:42
Yeah, and Claire’s exactly hit the nail on the head there and she's very right. It's about how we can ask people to go into introspection and think of how they can unpack themselves and their own experiences through viewing certain stories from the lens of another person and thinking, “Well, I never really thought about this. That story is really resonating with me”. And in this sense and just then taking that into introspection and thinking about how they can unpack that for themselves through seeing other people's stories. So it's a lot around, viewing different perspectives and then encouraging or inviting people to have a shift in their own perspective. And then it can hopefully become more permanent after a certain time having this shift in perspective. And we have pioneers, who have certainly shifted perspectives for Deaf people in the past and they've worked exceptionally hard at that and encouraged hearing people to have a shift in perspective. So, it's a matter of how we can work more collaboratively as a society to create that equity in our landscape and in our communities. Equity and communication as well. So hopefully, we can just have immediate access to what it is we require to communicate in our communities, whether that's Auslan or captioning. And it's, you know, not being seen as Deaf people, as a cost on society. We are actually, you know, should be seen as a return on value, because what we can bring an everyday conversation into society is valuable.
Genevieve 18:17
Yeah, absolutely. And just because we do have to wrap up soon. I wanted to ask, you know, you obviously, both put so much effort, time and love into this project and, you know, you've got members of the community and the public going through the exhibition now. What would you hope that they would get out of the show?
Chelle Destefano 18:44
Well, I'm really hoping that we can become a more permanent display. And we can have an acquisition of that art and display our exhibition more permanently and have deaf artists, not just deaf artists, but also deaf community members who are seen in these public spaces on a more permanent basis. So that people in the future can certainly benefit from what they can learn from the Deaf community and the Deaf community can benefit from that permanency. And having that Deaf voice, that space to deliver their Deaf voices and Deaf perspectives, more solidified in the community, rather than being on the outliers and not being able to really communicate and not given the opportunity to talk about their experiences of audism, and their levels of oppression they face. So having spaces where they can express that, so it can share the knowledge throughout the community would be ideal… but I'll hand it over to Claire.
Claire Bridge 19:41
I'll add to the topic of language as well that all of the stories are presented in Auslan, which is a Australian sign language. So there is such an emphasis in this on kind of sharing the richness of this language and the power of this language and the voice of the people who use this language. And it's not yet a nationally recognized language. It's understood to be a community language. But if it was recognized as a national language, the landscape would change in Australia. Not only would it be taught as a second language in schools, which currently still needs to be much more supported Federally, in order for that to be successful, but hearing and Deaf people could use this national Australian sign language, and we would have so much more accessibility and understanding of this community and it would be seen simply as another method of connecting with each other rather than a barrier, and all of this “hefty burden” of organizing all of these supports around it. Imagine if everyone had access to this language and took it up.
Genevieve 20:51
Yeah, definitely. And just quickly before we wrap up, where can people see the exhibition? Obviously, I mentioned Footscray Community Art Centre, but for how long is it on and yeah, how can people access this exhibition?
Claire Bridge 21:11
It's on at Footscray Community Art Centre, on now until August 28. And we're actually going to tour around Victoria to Hyphen-Wodonga, then to ArtSpace Realm, and next year in … for World Pride 2023 we’ll be in Woollahra, New South Wales. So, there's quite a few opportunities for people to connect with the show and we look forward to hearing what people think about it.
Geneveive 21:36
Amazing. Yeah. And just to reiterate, the show is on until the 28th of August at Footscray Community Art Centre. Well, thank you so much, Claire and shell for joining us on Tuesday breakfast. It's been an absolute pleasure to have you on the show, to talk about “What I Wish I’d Told You”, and all things about the exhibition. It's been absolutely amazing. Thank you.
Claire Bridge 22:00
Thank you so much.
Chelle Destefano 22:01
Great. Thank you so much. We really enjoyed being here today. And I'm just so appreciative that we were here to tell our story and I'm very much looking forward for people to come along and to see the exhibition.
Genevieve 22:12
Yeah, I'd highly recommend if you're in the Footscray area, or in the Melbourne area in general, go check it out. It sounds like an absolutely incredible exhibition. Unfortunately, we are at the end of the show today. As always, we will podcast the show and put it up on our “Tuesday Breakfast” website. Keep tuned, we have “Accent of Women” coming up next.
