Deaf explorer supported Deaf dancers to be on the famous dance stage of The Laban Theatre. Photography by Jane Hobson. ‘An absolutely brilliant evening. So much better than I had anticipated. Not sure really what I was expecting. The choreography was great and the four dancers were excellent. The three pieces were informative, witty and beautifully presented. The set and props for TEN and the matching suits were stunning. I hope to see this company again.’
Deaf Explorer and Greenwich Performs commissioned “Deaf Men Dancing”. Choreographer Mark Smith & Assistant Choreographer Joseph Fletcher successfully re invented the dance company with new dancers Joshua Cantril, Joseph Porton and Aaron Rahn.
Dean Melbourne is now mentoring artists to develop new work, explore the discipline required to work through a project. The week by week planning and delivery. Dean helps artist find and identify their own support network to help with the task of taking each day at a time and working through an ambitious artistic project. Dean also helps artists identify their market & how sell visual art work in the short term, mid term and long term. Finn has an Arts Council England DYCP and has asked Dean to get involved with action planning so he can get the most out of the funding, making a difference to Finn practice as an artist as he transitions from film making to visual art, following sight loss. Dean has great empathy with artist experiencing barriers in their day to day lives, due to health issues.
Deaf explorer delighted to announce that Greenwich Performs have commissioned “Deaf Men Dancing” Mark Smith is re inventing the dance company with new dancers Joshua Cantril, Joseph Porton and Aaron Rahn.
Get Tickets for Deaf Men Dancing – a fusion of dance styles and sign-language – Two Nights, 9th October & 10th October Time:7.30 doors open 7.00 Venue: Laban Theatre, 30 Creekside, Deptford, London SE8 3DZ, Tickets£16 with concessions at £12. Group bookings of 5 or more will receive a 10% discount. Solely performed by deaf dancers, it will challenge perceptions that deaf people can’t dance. Assistant Choreographer has reworked Hear! Hear! and TEN , a two hander comic in style based on the Ten Commandments of Deaf Awareness. Mark Smith is making a new dance work called“TIME” symboilic of the issues and assumptions facing deaf dancers.
10% of ticket sales are going towards supporting a young deaf girls dream of studying at the performing arts college London Studio Centre for her BA Hons with Contemporary Specialism. Mark Smith trained at LSC from 1989-1991 and both Mark and Greenwich Performs wish to support Elle Salkind in following her passion. Elle was born with Microtia, a condition which results in undeveloped and deformity of one or both of the ears.This left Elle with profound hearing loss on her left side and over the last five years, she has also lost hearing in her right ear. Having this condition has never stopped Elle in her dance and she is a positive and inspiring force to others with Microtia. For Elle, dancing is a release from the anxiety she struggles with and a way to express her feelings. She is greatly influenced by the work of Mark Smith by incorporating signing into her dances and her goal is to own a dance school specialising in classes for others with disabilities. Elle has never allowed her Microtia to slow her down and wants to help others to have faith that you can still achieve your dreams.
Box opening Maral Mamaghani bone chine over ear jewellery
Composer and sound designer Chris Bartholemew gets to work on designing a sound scape when wearing Maral Mamaghani bone chine over ear jewellery. If you want to be alive…read my lips Testing work August/September 2019
Box opening Maral Mamaghani bone chine over ear jewellery
Composer and sound designer Chris Bartholemew gets to work on designing a sound scape when wearing Maral Mamaghani bone chine over ear jewellery. ‘If you want to be alive…read my lips’ Testing work August/September 2019
PHOTO: Finn at opening of Exhibition “An Itch and A Scream” at Touch base Pears
Finn Visual Art Exhibition. Now Open: Monday, June 17, 2019 to Friday, July 26, 2019 – all day. TouchBase Pears at 750 Bristol Road, Birmingham, England, United Kingdom, B29 6NA.
In 2019, Finn had an artist residency at SENSE, flagship building Touch Base Pears. The residency titled, Life & Deaf led to the first exhibition of visual arts by a Deaf blind professional artist at Touch Base Pears. The project was funded by Arts Council England.
PHOTO: Sunney Sharma, Arts and Wellbeing Co-ordinator at TouchBase pears and artist Finn
At the opening of his exhibition at Touch Base Pears, Finn commented,
“My wife has said in the past that my work should be on exhibition, but I never believed her. It is only by meeting the right the people: Dash, Deaf Explorer, Sense.
Suddenly, I felt that I had the potential to be an artist through mentoring with Artist Dean Melbourne. He saw that I had the gift of telling stories through patterns; let’s face it, I will never be a portrait artist or a landscape artist – I can’t see.
Photo: “Analogue Age” – Pattern’s exhibition January 2019 – Beginning Finn’s Life & Deaf Residency at Touch Base Pears.
The First exhibition I had at Sense consisted of ten A3 size prints and they represented memories from analogue to digital age. Finn, “My earliest memory is my father banging the television trying to get it to work. The zig zags took me days to perfect. To create the sense of the fist bashing against the timber of the television”
Photo: Wheels is an expression of my biggest loss
The pattern “Wheels” is about my biggest loss. The love of driving. I have always been a petrol head, began with roller skates, go-karts. I customised a 1956 Ford Popular, build two kit cars. With loss of vision I feel like I am going backwards to nothing. This why the pattern going backwards and down- hill.
Finn said, “My first exhibition in January 2019 at Touch Base Pears was a massive surprise.” It described a secret life, of living with progressive sight loss in a Deaf world. Audiences Tweeted, “Loving the exhibition – such graceful, intricate images”
PHOTO: Arts Consultant Helga Henry and Finn
Helga Henry tweeted “I urge you all to see experience this aesthetically pleasing and unexpectedly moving and beautifully rendered show”
This current exhibition, my second show at TouchBase Pears is called An itch and a scream. An exploration of grief at both bereavement and sensory loss, Finn finds light and hope in his darkest moments.
Photo: The Muse
Finn described the picture, “The Muse”. As the starting point for all the pictures. The motif is based on a decorative tile that his father bought on a trip to Spain, but never used. The title of another artwork is “Isolation”, accompanying the picture is Finn’s description: “I was born Deaf but I didn’t start to lose my sight until a few years ago. I was well prepared to lose my own sight. But I was not prepared for the isolation. As my sight reduced the sense of being cut off increased. I can sense people are physically near but I can’t read them emotionally, are they happy? Are they sad? What is their mood? What are they saying? What are they thinking? I have no idea!
There are an estimated 424,944 DeafBlind people.
Blind people can hear laughters
Deaf People can see sadness.
Deaf Blind people….. can’t.
In a picture titled, Depression, Finn says, ”It is in the lowest moments that you realise just how dependant you are on others.” In a picture titled Liberation, Finn celebrates, “You can be as important and earnest as the next person.And you must not let anyone define your limitations because of what your disabilities are. Your only limit is your beliefs.”
Finn says, with each picture, I tell my story of the hardships of a Deafblind person.
Growing up in the country, I saw beautiful spiders webs. I love Dewdrop’s hanging off the spiders web very beautifulI. l can no longer see that anymore, what I see is a tangled mess. The pattern is my interpretation of a spiders web. My daughter Isabella can see spiders webs. My daughter will lose her sight one day. I tell her to embrace the experience. And remember a spiders web.
Frog Spawn (Right) :
I have started to “see” things from my memories as a sighted child. I lived in an extreme rural part of the country. Growing up on a farm, I was witness to many natural things, the welfare of the animals, the climate hardship and I first became aware of the fragility of life.
I choose “The Frog Spawn” from my childhood memory when I was sighted child because I was often transfixed by the “Birth of Life”.
The Frog Spawn is one of the few species that at the beginning of life you can actually see from your naked eye. It’s also shows the amazing transformation from that of an egg to a tadpole and into a frog. This is my interpretation of Frog spawn, from my perspective,
Watch Finn’s video about his next digital project
Watch Finn’s pitch to be a pioneer of Haptic Art
Example of the research about making my digital prints tactile for Deaf blind audiences, inspired by the residency at SENSE Touch base Pears, Birmingham
PHOTO: Finn at opening of Exhibition “An Itch and A Scream” at Touch base Pears
Finn Visual Art Exhibition. Now Open: Monday, June 17, 2019 to Friday, July 26, 2019 – all day. TouchBase Pears at 750 Bristol Road, Birmingham, England, United Kingdom, B29 6NA.
In 2019, Finn had an artist residency at SENSE, flagship building Touch Base Pears. The residency titled, Life & Deaf led to the first exhibition of visual arts by a Deaf blind professional artist at Touch Base Pears. The project was funded by Arts Council England.
PHOTO: Sunney Sharma Arts and Wellbeing Co-ordinator at TouchBase pears and artist Finn
At the opening of his exhibition at Touch Base Pears, Finn commented,
“My wife has said in the past that my work should be on exhibition, but I never believed her. It is
only by meeting the right the people: Dash, Deaf Explorer, Sense.
Suddenly, I felt that I had the potential to be an artist through mentoring with Artist Dean Melbourne. He saw that I had the gift of telling stories through patterns; let’s face it, I will never be a
portrait artist or a landscape artist – I can’t see.
Photo: “Analogue Age” – Pattern’s exhibition January 2019 – Beginning Finn’s Life & Deaf Residency at Touch Base Pears.
The First exhibition I had at Sense consisted of ten A3 size prints and they represented memories from analogue to digital age. Finn, “My earliest memory is my father banging the television trying to get it to work. The zig zags took me days to perfect. To create the sense of the fist bashing against the timber of the television”
Photo: Wheels is an expression of my biggest loss
The pattern “Wheels” is about my biggest loss. The love of driving. I have always been a petrol head, began with roller skates, go-karts. I customised a 1956 Ford Popular, build two kit cars. With loss of vision I feel like I am going backwards to nothing. This why the pattern going backwards and down- hill.
Finn said, “My first exhibition in January 2019 at Touch Base Pears was a massive surprise.” It described a secret life, of living with progressive sight loss in a Deaf world. Audiences Tweeted, “Loving the exhibition – such graceful, intricate images”
PHOTO: Arts Consultant Helga Henry and Finn
Helga Henry tweeted “I urge you all to see experience this aesthetically pleasing and unexpectedly moving and beautifully rendered show”
This current exhibition, my second show at TouchBase Pears is called An itch and a scream. An exploration of grief at both bereavement and sensory loss, Finn finds light and hope in his darkest moments.
Photo: The Muse
Finn described the picture, “The Muse”. As the starting point for all the pictures. The motif is based on a decorative tile that his father bought on a trip to Spain, but never used. The title of another artwork is “Isolation”, accompanying the picture is Finn’s description: “I was born Deaf but I didn’t start to lose my sight until a few years ago. I was well prepared to lose my own sight. But I was not prepared for the isolation. As my sight reduced the sense of being cut off increased. I can sense people are physically near but I can’t read them emotionally, are they happy? Are they sad? What is their mood? What are they saying? What are they thinking? I have no idea!
There are an estimated 424,944 DeafBlind people.
Blind people can hear laughters
Deaf People can see sadness.
Deaf Blind people….. can’t.
In a picture titled, Depression, Finn says, ”It is in the lowest moments that you realise just how dependant you are on others.” In a picture titled Liberation, Finn celebrates, “You can be as important and earnest as the next person.And you must not let anyone define your limitations because of what your disabilities are. Your only limit is your beliefs.”
Finn says, with each picture, I tell my story of the hardships of a Deafblind person.
Growing up in the country, I saw beautiful spiders webs. I love Dewdrop’s hanging off the spiders web very beautifulI. l can no longer see that anymore, what I see is a tangled mess. The pattern is my interpretation of a spiders web. My daughter Isabella can see spiders webs. My daughter will lose her sight one day. I tell her to embrace the experience. And remember a spiders web.
Frog Spawn (Right) :
I have started to “see” things from my memories as a sighted child. I lived in an extreme rural part of the country. Growing up on a farm, I was witness to many natural things, the welfare of the animals, the climate hardship and I first became aware of the fragility of life.
I choose “The Frog Spawn” from my childhood memory when I was sighted child because I was often transfixed by the “Birth of Life”.
The Frog Spawn is one of the few species that at the beginning of life you can actually see from your naked eye. It’s also shows the amazing transformation from that of an egg to a tadpole and into a frog. This is my interpretation of Frog spawn, from my perspective,
Example of the research about making my digital prints tactile for Deaf blind audiences, inspired by the residency at SENSE Touch base Pears, Birmingham
Rinkoo Barpaga was funded by Arts Council England to explore:
Deaf people and stories from the indian subcontinent
Over this time in 2018, Rinkoo Barpaga was on The Birmingham REP’s Foundry for emerging theatre makers in the West Midlands. Rinkoo set out to tell the story of South Asian Deaf living in Britain. He has done this with his new play. He has created a monologue. The title “Made in India Britain” The play lasts 1 hour 10 minutes. The play was directed by Daniel Bailey, who is now Associate Director of Bush Theatre London. Rinkoo was mentored by playwright Andrew Muir. The play was written using a process that involved Writer Andrew Muir and Director Daniel Bailey.
The project benefited Rinkoo immensely. For example, Rinkoo was not sure that audiences would be interested in the darker side of his life, Rinkoo would never expose his bad experiences in a stand up comedy performance. The impact on audiences resulting from Rinkoo’s courage, are shown in feedback form audiences.
“Your story is amazing”
“I really enjoyed his performance, I think this really amazing to share, about his life. His performance had helped and impacted about life”
“It was about your life. The good and the bad”
“Can relate to childhood experience regarding deaf in mainstream school”
Rinkoo’s courage on stage has given him confidence to explore a making a new play called “Chocolat” A two-hander symbolic of Institutional Racism & Deaf discrimination, inspired by French Black clown Rafael Padilla. Rinkoo applied to China Plate First Bite and presented a scratch at Derby Theatre in March 2019.
The origin of this new work is in the Made In India research, Dr Paddy Ladd supported Rinkoo to understand the international history of Deaf Discrimination. He learnt about Colonisation, The Milan conference and Oralism. The French sign for Colonialism is the hand over the mind and the heart. Rinkoo first R&D week for Made In India was inspired by these meetings with Dr Paddy Ladd. Also worked with actor Stephen Collins as Rinkoo’s Creative Enabler on this first week of R&D. Together they are making Deaf led theatre and they now have a strong working relationship after the two of them worked together on “Chocolat” for the First Bite scratch.
During the making of Made in India Rinkoo Barpaga met Cory Campbell director of Strictly Arts in Coventry. They discussed the topics of Made in India. Rinkoo invited Cory Campbell to direct the week of R&D for the First Bite Scratch night.
The impact of Made in India for Rinkoo Barpaga is that he now has a far greater understanding of the theatre making process, and his role as author, writer, theatre maker, artistic director. This demonstrated by the success of new work like “Chocolat” and working with Director Cory Campbell. In 2019 Rinkoo was invited by IETM (International network for contemporary performing arts) to present a key note speech in Italy about Deaf access to Theatre. It was highly successful because Rinkoo was able to demonstrate the need for change by presenting the creative case – a sequence from Made in India, a high quality piece of new theatre by a Deaf diverse artist.
New Composition by Michael England for Hut 8 Research and Development
Joseph Fletcher: Such a rare week of sharing a studio with an awesome group of people, a space of creativity and play, learning and trying to understand about more about Alan Turing’ss Machines and literally laughing out loud. Thankful for this week.
Deaf Explorer 