1880 THAT

Christine Sun Kim & Thomas Mader - Wellcome Collection

'1880 THAT' is a new exhibition, which explores sign language and the right to communicate. It brings together new and recent work by the artists Christine Sun Kim and Thomas Mader.

The exhibition explores the idea of language as a home - an essential place of belonging - and what it means to live with the threat of losing one's language.

The exhibition title refers to the Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf, held in Milan in 1880, and its influence on Deaf education around the world. The term THAT is an emphatic expression in American Sign Language (ASL), which adds weight and significance to a preceding statement.

The conference declared that oral education - teaching Deaf people to communicate through lip reading and speech - should replace sign language in Deaf schools. The inventor Alexander Graham Bell was also a strong advocate for the oral system.

The majority of conference attendees were hearing people. Following the conference, the teaching of sign language was sidelined and suppressed, resulting in exclusion and stigma for Deaf people.

Despite its importance to Deaf communities, there is no plaque on the building where the Milan Conference took place so the artists have created their own commemorative bricks, which make a connection between bricks as the building blocks of cities and of language.

Kim and Mader’s playful artworks use humour to draw attention to the ripple effects of the conference on Deaf education and identity. Through film and sculpture, '1880 THAT' addresses the fundamental right to communicate and explores new possibilities for understanding between signed and spoken languages.

Curator: Laurie Britton Newell

3d Design: Studio Saava / Consultant design: Deaf Architecture Front

2d Design: Sara De Bont & Luke Gould

Build: Exib Ltd & MDM Props

Lighting Design: Satu Streatfield

All images Courtesy of Charlie Swinbourne / Wellcome Collection.