When the Mind Hears, 1993
This work is a multimedia installation combining photographic elements, sculpture and film to explore issues around the acquiring of language and the possibilities of communication. More directly, it stems from my own personal experience of becoming a mother whose daughter was born deaf. The film component of the installation is comprised of two 7 minute films: one is of a woman signing in American Sign Language the poem "The Walrus and the Carpenter" from Lewis Carroll's Alice Through the Looking Glass: another is more steeped in memory, depicting children running through a maze, swans swimming in a Plexiglas environment and a child riding on an adult's back. The sculptural elements include three small shelves with objects and photographs mounted in a similar way to a child's dresser or family mantel piece. The 29 black and white silver prints, of varying scale, are presented in diptychs and single images; they contain explicit references to myself, my life and that of my daughter.
This work is also a 71 page book published by Vu with text by xxxxxxxx in 1994.