This artwork is an abstract self portrait after I got the cochlear implant. As a Deaf person, at the end of each day I feel very fatigued and on edge, I am ‘Jangled Nerves’. This is a really visual representation of how I feel. The wider community sees my cochlear implant and assumes it is a ‘cure’ or a ‘fix’, but that is not the case. I am still Deaf, even with a cochlear implant, it certainly helps in some situations but it is actually quite a lot of hard work trying to process sounds and work out where they are coming from. I have a love/hate relationship with my cochlear implant. I love being in the Deaf world and using Auslan, it’s where I am truly most comfortable and I don’t tend to have the ‘Jangled Nerves’ after a day in the deaf world.
