I Thought I Was Supposed to Keep Quiet: An Interview with Deaf Artist Daniel Kotowski

m2-2-daniel-kotowski.jpg, default, 'I'm Reading Out Loud II', 2019, performance, 'Trace' joint exhibition, Fabryka Sztuki in Łódź, photo: Habryn / Wawrzoła

#photography & visual arts

#performing arts

Can a deaf artist communicate with everyone? And why shouldn’t one compare sign language to dance? Piotr Policht speaks to Polish artist and educator Daniel Kotowski on making art as a deaf person, how the education system continues to get in the way and how to overcome those obstacles.

To be able to chat freely, Daniel Kotowski and I met up with our interpreter, Anna Borycka. Outside the deaf community, very few people use Polish Sign Language (Polski Język Migowy, or PJM).

Piotr Policht: Doesn’t the language barrier make it difficult to pursue an artistic education?

Daniel Kotowski: I managed even when no interpreter was available; it only took me a little longer when we had to write something. The academy (editor’s note: the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts and the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology) was obligated to provide support for deaf students, which meant finding an interpreter, so for the entire five years [of my studies] I had no trouble communicating with my professors. Some deaf people like attention, but I wanted them to see me as just another student. Although not long ago, right before the pandemic, I did experience an unfortunate incident.

I wanted to rent a workshop space, and I was talking to the agent representing the owner. I wanted to hire an interpreter, but they said we would manage without one. Just as we were about to finalise the agreement, the owner demanded that a hearing person be with me, so they could talk on the phone. I said it wasn’t an issue for me to text or e-mail, yet the owner decided to break off the agreement because I was deaf. I had never encountered a situation like that before, although I had heard about such issues from others. My parents are hearing [people], so I know how to function in the hearing world, as well as the deaf world.

The only barrier to education is the lack of interpreters. There are more and more deaf students, but interpreters are hard to come by. The situation in Warsaw is still better than in other cities – in Upper Silesia, there are only two interpreters.

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'Untitled' by Daniel Kotowski, 2018, object, photo: Piotr Kruszak

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PP: Until recently, even the largest Polish cultural institutions had virtually no programming addressed to deaf people. Now you’ve taken matters into your own hands and are running sign language events at two of the most important artistic institutions, Zachęta and the Museum of Modern Art. What was the situation like when you were starting out?

DK: In 2012, we formed the Deaf Artists’ Group (Grupa Artystów Głuchych, or GAG), bringing together a diverse range of people, including students, Academy of Fine Arts graduates, and amateurs; we had around thirty members. Thanks to our activities, we attracted attention; Zachęta realised that deaf people could create art, and they approached us. If it weren’t for GAG, who knows how things would’ve turned out. One of the older members of the group was very active; she was involved in the Association of Polish Artists and Designers (ZPAP), but twenty, thirty years ago, she faced a lack of understanding and hostility from hearing people. I was also involved in the group myself, although its ethos changed over time, and I went my own way.

PP: In your work, you often refer to your way of viewing reality as a deaf person. In the past, these were photographs or metaphorical objects referencing abstract concepts such as silence. Recently, however, you have mainly been performing and using your voice. What prompted this change?

DK: I often had the feeling that it was not appropriate for me to speak up. My speech is difficult to understand, so all my life I was taught that, because I had problems with pronunciation, it was best if I kept quiet. Of course, I could talk when interacting with my family, though it’s always physically demanding; I had never before thought I could use my speech in art.

Later, I came across the work of Christine Sun Kim, a deaf artist who used to live in New York and is now based in Berlin, who incorporates elements of ASL (American Sign Language) into her art, as well as, albeit to a lesser extent, speech. I wasn’t entirely convinced by it, but I had great respect for her as an artist.

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'Silence' by Daniel Kotowski, 2015, 'The Unreasonable Man Persists in Trying to Adapt the World to Himself ' monographic exhibition at the Ludwik Zamenhof Centre in Białystok, curated by Aleksandra Czerniawska, photo: Piotr Kruszak

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Afterwards, I tried to create objects from different materials but felt none had the right persuasive power. I kept looking. That’s when I came across Warsaw’s Galeria Śmierć Frajerom’s (Die Losers Gallery) contest called Paintings Against Humanity – I was intrigued by the title and instinctively decided to use my voice. I filmed the I’m Reading Out Loud video-performance in which I recite the Polish national anthem.

PP: Why the national anthem?

DK: Because I knew that if I chose a text that no one knew, it would be hard for them to make out what I was saying. So I chose a well-known piece that everyone [in Poland] knew. Every Polish citizen knows the national anthem.

After that, I staged a performance called Polish is the Official Language of the Republic of Poland. The title is a provision from the Polish Constitution. It was my way of drawing attention to the dominance of the spoken language, the Polish language.

Hearing people often expect me to use speech. But when I make the effort and speak, they don’t like it, and sometimes they even claim that I lack respect for them and for speech itself. Deaf people, on the other hand, believe that I shouldn’t use spoken language because I am, in a sense, speaking on their behalf, and one might think that I’m mocking them. Between these two groups of Poles, three different views can therefore emerge; one might get the impression that every way is wrong and that there is no ideal solution.

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Still from 'I'm Reading Out Loud' by Daniel Kotowski, photo: courtesy of the artist

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PP: In your bio, you write about yourself as being ‘incomplete’. Doesn’t that also spark opposition within the deaf community?

DK: I use the phrase as a reference to Foucault’s theory of biopower. Every time I met someone, they would treat me as if I were different; they would look at me as if I were incomplete. Some may not like it, but I believe other deaf people would feel the same as I do.

When they’re in their own community, they don’t feel it; it doesn’t bother them; they communicate using sign language. All that needs to happen, though, is stepping into the world of the hearing to be treated as incomplete. It’s a broader social issue, which doesn’t only concern the deaf but rather everyone who doesn’t fit the perfect mould – whether it’s because of their sexual orientation or race.

The scale of the problem differs from country to country. Before, I mentioned the provision in the Polish constitution [about the official language]. In New Zealand, the constitution sees the spoken language and the signed language as equal. In practice, this means, for example, that deaf people must be provided with an interpreter at every government office and don’t have to pay extra for the service.

They are treated this way because those are the conditions mandated by law. It’s similar in Scandinavian countries. Personally, I would love to go to Lithuania, whose history is similar to ours, yet where sign language became an official language equal to spoken Lithuanian twenty-five years ago. Although I’ve heard from a friend that deaf people are still treated differently in the workplace.

PP: You aren’t fully convinced about using sign language in art, but there have been trials – but there have been attempts to do so – a few years ago, Wojtek Ziemilski created a play based entirely on Polish Sign Language. His perspective was different, though, because he is a hearing person for whom signing is a foreign language.

Artist Daniel Kotowski lying on the ground outside with megaphones above his head — 'Polish is the Official Language of the Republic of Poland' by Daniel Kotowski, 2019, performance, Stroboskop, photo: Piotr Kruszak

DK: The perspective of a hearing person, who shows interest in our world, will never have the same level of knowledge about our issues. I’m not criticising the artistic concept, but the perspective of someone who didn’t grow up in a deaf environment is different.

The hearing have more possibilities, they can use a wider array of solutions in their work. On the other hand, the majority of deaf people, who don’t know Polish well, are constantly met with difficult obstacles. My Polish is actually quite good, so it’s easier for me to get by, but many deaf people struggle with it because the standard of school education is appallingly low. There’s a lack of bilingualism in education. It’s as if we were teaching someone in this country English or Chinese without first explaining Polish.

Until I was fourteen, I wasn’t doing very well with Polish. The teacher at my school in Otwock [just outside of Warsaw] was using a language I didn’t understand, so I would just memorise whatever I read. Afterwards, when I changed schools, I had a deaf Polish teacher, who would explain the language using Polish Sign Language, which produced completely different results.

Deaf people could often achieve so much more if only they had the chance to receive a better education. The second problem is that deaf people are treated as if they were poor people who are incapable of doing anything; indeed, they are taught to be helpless, and people automatically assume that they won’t be able to cope.

I remember a sad story – at school in Silesia, I met a deaf peer of mine who was looking for a job at the time. So I asked him what he was interested in and where he’d like to work. He replied that rather than a job in line with his interests, he’d prefer to work in a warehouse. Because everyone says that packing boxes is the perfect job for a deaf person. It’s a kind of enforced helplessness, which, fortunately, is slowly changing, especially in Warsaw.

Coming back to sign language being used by the hearing: it doesn’t bother me when it’s used as inspiration. I like Bogna Burska’s The Revolt of the Deaf [editor’s note: play and film about a true story from 1988, when deaf students at Gallaudet University in Washington managed to get the first ever deaf dean elected], because she shows the issues different groups are dealing with. When someone makes deaf people their subject, I have mixed feelings.

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'Polish is the Official Language of the Republic of Poland' by Daniel Kotowski, 2019, performance, Stroboskop, photo: Patrycja Kuczyńska

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PP: So why do you avoid using sign language in your work?

DK: A few elements appear in the performance I’m Reading Aloud, where I did sign some letters, but I don’t usually highlight sign language as such. If I were to start signing in a performance, someone hearing would probably say: ‘Oh, how beautiful!’. Hearing people often talk about sign language as if it’s a kind of dance, with beautiful gestures, something I absolutely disagree with. Sign language is highly visual; that’s true – when I sign ‘flower’, the shape my hand makes is associated with that image, fine, but that’s not all there is to it.

Visual Vernacular (VV) is closer to this way of thinking – it’s an art form that draws not on the signs of sign language, but on form itself. I’m not proficient in it, though I’m familiar with the basics. I could use it in a performance; it’s very visual. By way of comparison, this is what the sign for an eagle looks like in PJM [Daniel Kotowski signs a simple, rather abstract sign]. In contrast, in VV, I would depict an eagle like this [here Daniel performs a complex sequence of movements evoking, amongst other things, an eagle’s profile with a hooked beak and the flapping of wings]. Perhaps, for example, if I wanted to talk about love, this would be a nice form to use for that purpose.

But the main reason I don’t use sign language in my art is that I want it to get through to the hearing. Do I end up discriminating against deaf people? When I speak, deaf people can’t understand me, but they can relate to my experiences. And I can show hearing people how I have to adapt to them. I try to find my place in both worlds; I’m searching for a universal art form. It’s a game based on constantly adapting to both groups.

_{Daniel Kotowski}_{, born 1993, is a visual artist, performer and educator. At the Zachęta – National Gallery of Art in Warsaw, he runs a regular series of sign language events entitled ‘Zachęta Signs!’. Also, he collaborates with the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw. In his work, he explores his own experience as a deaf person, interpersonal relationships and social policies. In his latest works, he uses his voice and a portable sound system to read out passages from the Polish constitution in public spaces, amongst other things.}

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