International Day of Sign Languages

The International Day of Sign Languages affirms the importance of supporting and protecting the linguistic identity and cultural diversity of all deaf people and other sign language users. Today marks the formation of the World Federation of the Deaf in 1951, an advocacy organization dedicated to the preservation of sign languages and deaf culture as prerequisites to realizing the human rights of deaf people.

This work from the AGA Collection by Darci Mallon is part of a series in which the artist drew hands signing a single word or phrase in American Sign Language. Created in layers, the hand or hands appear to be in motion. Here, the hand is signing the word “dementia,” a reference to the artist’s interest in communication, memory and forgetting.