Performance Arts

The performance Liberated from Signaclasm was presented in American Sign Language (ASL) in front of the audience of various backgrounds and cultures (thus different languages) at the international performance art festival in Poland, 2007. None in the audience knew a sign language yet this performance visually presented a powerful voice. It was about the history of phonocentrism and signoclasm (coined by the artist myself). Like iconoclasm, signoclasm is referred to the prohibition of using sign language through coercion or oppression.

Selected words were torn out of the yellowish pages of an old dictionary and they were individually crumbled. The crumbled pages were pushed into my mouth in reference to the historical coercion of orality against manually speaking (or sign language). My body's rejection then purged them out of my mouth. The crumbles then were burnt for freedom.