What I Wish I’d Told You
Touring Exhibition
Footscray Community Arts, 13 July – 28 August 2022
Hyphen Wodonga Gallery, 17 Sept - 3 Dec 2022
ArtSpace at Realm, 1 Oct - 20 Nov 2022
What I Wish I’d Told You, by Claire Bridge and Chelle Destefano with Deaf community, centres Deaf voices, identity, language and culture.
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 gallery into a Deaf space and Deaf Cultural experience. Working together as collaborators and allies, Bridge and Destefano are winners of the West Space/Footscray Community Arts Commission 2022 for ‘What I Wish I’d Told You’.
images: Claire Bridge and Chelle Destefano, What I Wish I’d Told You, 2022, installation views at FCA
photos: Claire Bridge, Mike Wilkins
What I Wish I’d Told You Collaborators
Lead artists
Chelle Destefano and Claire Bridge
Deaf Auslan Storytellers
Dr Robert Adam, Joanna Agius OAM (Narungga), Nadia Baradi, Robyn Beasley, Peter Blockey, Joshua Campbell, Carrol Collishaw, Chelle Destefano, Thomas Doe, Joseph Formosa, (Yuin and Torres Strait Islander, Deaf/blind), Dion Galea, Katrina Garvey, David Grant, Rae Gibson, Jessi Hartley, Irene Holub, Kirsten James Bell, Llewellyn Jones, Walter Kadiki, Gareth Kelaart, Marnie Kerridge, Lisa Kingdom, Elvin Lam, Catherine Lillian, Haley Martin, (Worrimi and Dunghutti), Sam Martin, Siobhan Mason, Daniel McDonald, (Gadigal and Wonnurua), Melanie Merhi, Lorraine Mulley, Ramas McRae, Katrina Parker, Ida Rogers, Paul Sheppard, Medina Straub, Rebekah Rose-Mundy, Roberta Sassi, Olesja Schiller, June Stathis, Mademoiselle Coco – aka Andrew Wiltshire, Ayah Wehbe, Alisha Wormald
Hearing Voice Allies/Collaborators
Zahraa Alkahtani, Ingmar Apinis, Leanne Bock, Claire Bridge, Peter Carew, Adam Chamberlain, Dr. Kim Donaldson, Marc Ethan, Jonathon Harris, Rachel Jessie-Rae, Dr. Kate Just, Ka Chun Lay, Billy Lee, Karleng Lim, Heather Loades, Nic Maher, Anna McDermott, Jaimes Perry, Therese Pomat, Ian Scott, Nicholas Sopelario, Melody Spangaro, Katie Stackhouse, Anna Steele, Michelle Tonkin, Layla Vardo, Doug Webb, Melody Woodnutt, Kia Zand
First Nations Consultant, Deaf Mob
Joanna Agius OAM, Narungga
Acknowledgement of Country
Auslan video, Joanna Agius OAM with Ben Hatchard,
Deaf Aboriginal Services (DAS)
First Nations Auslan/ English Interpreting Voice-overs
Lucian Remedio, Deadly Hands Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporation
Project Technical Advisor
Yandell Walton
English Language Captions
Claire Bridge, Chelle Destefano, and Deb’s Deaf Access and Tutoring
In collaboration with our team of Auslan/English interpreters including:
Lucian Remedio, Marc Ethan, Heather Loades, Amber Richardson, Therese Lewis, Gabriel Kirley, Tyson Boal, Wendy Bailey, Mark Sandon, Lynn Gordon
Onsite installation and event interpreters including: Stacie Van Hulst, Glenda Judd, Amber Richardson and Marc Ethan
Animated captions
Claire Bridge and Chelle Destefano
Exhibition Design
Claire Bridge
Fabrication
Aldo Bilotta ,Nyora Studios with Claire Bridge
Deaf Performances
Chelle Destefano, Ramas McRae, Walter Kadiki, Elvin Lam and Karthik Vijayanandam
Opening event speakers
Gabrielle Hodge and Catherine Dunn
2022
Footscray Community Arts: https://footscrayarts.com/event/what-i-wish-id-told-you/
Hyphen-Wodonga: https://www.hyphenwodonga.com.au/Whats-On/what-i-wish-id-told-you-1
ArtSpace at Realm: https://www.maroondah.vic.gov.au/Explore/Whats-on-in-Maroondah/Events-calendar/What-I-Wish-I’d-Told-You
What I Wish I'd Told You is supported by the West Space/FCAC Commission 2022
and
Australia Council for the Arts
Creative Victoria
Regional Arts Victoria
City of Melbourne Arts Grants
Maroondah Arts and Culture Grant
Hyphen-Wodonga Commission
The Victorian College of the Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music at the University of Melbourne
