One in Five
Sculpture by Sarah Goodfellow
images of work before casting in bronze the final piece are coming soon
︎︎︎ read about the artwork below
“My piece shows two scenes from different perspectives. From one angle it appears that the 'one' person at the top of the pillar is alone. From the opposite angle you can see that the 'four' others are working as a team and striving to connect with the 'one' who believes they are alone.... they are infact right there, reaching out, working together to make a connection.”
Whilst chatting to the other collaborators on this project and doing background research I was struck by how difficult it is for those who have not experienced hearing loss to fully comprehend the difficulties facing those who are living with hearing loss or auditory disturbance from day to day. Someone who is hearing compromised may have to specifically orientate within a space in order to be able to use visual language cues to follow what’s happening or to avoid crowded places altogether where background noise could drown out the voices of those communicating close at hand. I was moved when we talked about some patients feelings of isolation or ‘difference’ and struck by the scientists’ and doctors’ passion to try to enable their patients to navigate the hearing world more easily.
A fact that really resonated with me on the RNID website was that one in five people in the UK suffers from some sort of hearing loss at any time, around 12 million people! This fact really made me think…. That there are so many individuals within our communities dealing with this invisible issue and changing their behaviours to live in a hearing world. If we could all change our own behaviours a little, strive to understand and reach out to people with hearing loss in the way that the doctors, scientists are doing then maybe we could change these feelings of isolation or difference.