VSA Massachusetts: Prior Exhibits

Open Door Gallery

Jiayi Zhou - "Who is the Deaf Artist?"

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September 9 - November 29, 2011
Presented in association with DEAF Inc., Gallaudet University Regional Center at Northern Essex Community College, and Third Sector New England
Reception with the artist: Friday, September 16, 2011 5pm - 8pm
Voice interpreters and CART provided
View a video of Jiayi taken September 7th while hanging the show

Close Move

Jiayi Zhou is a Deaf artist from Shanghai, China now living and attending school in Washington, DC. Before matriculating at Gallaudet University, she received an Associate of Arts degree from the Shanghai Institute of Technology. She has gained a national profile in the Chinese art world with numerous art and writing awards and appearances on both Shanghai and Taiwanese television.

Prior to her arrival to the United States in 2004, Jiayi communicated only through her native languages, written Mandarin and Chinese Sign Language. She has since mastered English and American Sign Language, graduated from Gallaudet with honors in Graphic Design and entered a Master's Program in International Development for People with Disabilities.

In Mandarin, Jiayi means "excellence in art". Her parents had hoped Jiayi would become a pianist, but fate intervened and Jiayi became deaf from an unexpected accident. Her love of visual art was a direct result of her learning to express herself without sound. When Jiayi wanted to eat an apple but did not know how to ask for it and her parents struggled to deduct their daughter's wishes, her mother encouraged her daughter to draw her desires. Jiayi drew the apple. Drawing thus became the primary mode of communication between Jiayi and her family. Over time, the color pencils and paper and the colors, lines and shapes they produced evolved from tools for expressing desire to tools for expressing feelings, conveying love and creating and celebrating beauty.

Always the goal in this expression was to connect across the distances silence can create. Jiayi's art continues to grow from that initial experience of using drawing to connect and share with her family and to share her truth with the world. She once expressed that each time she creates, it is always from a soundless dialogue with the inner self. Her artwork often employs fish and cats because, like water creatures, deaf people don't need to hear or speak and yet experience completely full lives; like cats, they use their inner intuition and grace to bring stillness to their living environment. Jiayi strongly believes that artistic expression is vital to creating a bridge of respect and understanding between the deaf world and hearing world. Through art we can reconnect with our common humanity and tenderness.

Jiayi is also an avid reader, world traveler, and collector of abstract art from different corners of the world. She wishes to learn more about deaf people and their struggles throughout the world, and promote awareness about their identities, improve their quality of life and further safeguard their rights.