Jodee Mundy is the only hearing person in her family. In Personal, she shares stories of her childhood and adulthood and opens up about the pressures she faced being a Child of Deaf Adults (CODA) and the frustrations of living in a society that failed to recognise the needs of Deaf people.
Mundy appears on stage with six large grey cubes scattered behind her, reminiscent of toys a child has not bothered to put away. She speaks to the audience verbally and through Auslan, sometimes using both, sometimes only using one of these languages. This means there are moments during the show where some people are unable understand what is being said but are still able to easily infer the information being imparted through her facial
expressions and body language. In some ways, by separating us, Mundy shows that we are more alike than we think.
Last year Jodee Mundy collaborated with Deafblind artists, Heather Lawson
and Michelle Stevens to create Imagined Touch, a tactile and sensory experience that explored the
importance of human touch and communication. The production went on to deservedly win a Green Room Award for Innovation
in Experiential Performance. In April, Mundy returns to Arts House with a new show in which she shares her own experiences of growing up as the only hearing person in a Deaf family.
Personal is based on interviews with 13 of Mundy's family members across three generations and looks at how people perceive one another and she uses these conversations to create discussions on dis/ability in the world. Of course, Mundy will also be recounting her own experiences as a Child Of Deaf Adults (CODA) and is looking forward to sharing these with her audience. "I had a pretty amazing childhood. I could talk with my hands, play music
full blast, and every Friday night we went to Deaf club where I would play with
heaps of other codas and scream at the tops of our voices while our parents
signed till the wee hours of the morning!" she recalls.
It's taken over four years and a collaboration with over twenty people for
director Jodee Mundy and Deafblind artists Heather Lawson and Michelle Stevens
to bring their live art performance Imagined
Touch to audiences. It’s a tactile and sensory experience that explores the
importance of the human touch and communication.
The show begins with Lawson - who was born Deaf and lost her sight - and
Stevens - who was born Blind and lost her hearing - introducing themselves to the
audience and recalling how they met. As they share a few stories with us, you
can’t help but start to wonder how they lead their day-to-day lives. But then the
imagination becomes reality as we are suddenly immersed into their world. We
remove our shoes and put on a pair of headphones and goggles. The soundscape in
the headphones created by Madeleine Flynn & Tim Humphrey remove much of the
sound in the room and the goggles obscure our vision, so all that we can see
are bright lights and blurry shadows.
