A Silent Society
Hope Jones
Until very recently stutters may have felt excluded from society. There was very little awareness and understanding of their problem often leaving them with a monoculture of medical help, speech therapy methods that were at times demoralising and embarrassing, for example being forced to speak with marbles in their mouths.
I carried out an interview with David, a twenty-two years old who has suffered from a stutter since the age of three after his mother had gone into hospital for a week – a traumatic time for him. He attended speech therapy lessons at the age of five for three months, which proved unhelpful, curing his stutter during therapy, but not in everyday life. Today his stutter is hardly noticeable, he still has trouble with the letter ‘H’. Learning to control his stutter well, he gets around tricky words by using different ones. It is very uplifting listening to David talk about how little impact stuttering had on his life, due to the support from family and friends who have been patient and understanding.
I carried out an interview with David, a twenty-two years old who has suffered from a stutter since the age of three after his mother had gone into hospital for a week – a traumatic time for him. He attended speech therapy lessons at the age of five for three months, which proved unhelpful, curing his stutter during therapy, but not in everyday life. Today his stutter is hardly noticeable, he still has trouble with the letter ‘H’. Learning to control his stutter well, he gets around tricky words by using different ones. It is very uplifting listening to David talk about how little impact stuttering had on his life, due to the support from family and friends who have been patient and understanding.
I wanted my creative piece to capture what it might feel like living with a stutter. It represents the constant battle the person faces with words, the physical and emotional struggle. Stutterers face a psychological struggle with words which manifests itself in a physical result.
This day-to-day struggle with words can be exhausting and I hope the figure highlights this. One stutterer said that ‘for most people whom language is a sea in which they swim like fish, for me it is an imposing cliff that I have to climb an inch at a time.’
Whole Person Care, Year One, 2011
This piece is incredibly thought provoking. It is something that many people fail to contemplate and it has been effectively and creatively illustrated in this piece. The burden of letters that this figure has to carry is incredibly moving and represents so many aspects of the life of someone who stutters. The use of the magnatic letters in the box is also very significant as it shows that a person who stutters will have the letters ‘jumbled up’ in their mind. The posture that the figure take shows that it is weary and that the load is heavy and it is something that those who stammer must contend with everyday. The use of shadows and the black of the figure against the white background shows highlights the sharp contrast and emphasises that this person is alone in their struggle. This piece is very poignant and will remain with me for a long time.
I loved this piece, not only was it highly thought provoking but I couldn’t take my eyes off it. I was intrigued by the letters in the box, I felt myself asking what was going to come out of it, how were the words going to be strung together? I particularly noticed the idea that the figure was set against a white, very plain background. This created 2 thought processes: a) how the person with the stutter felt all alone, without anyone to help them with their burden (the box) or people to confide and turn to b) caused all the focus to be on the person with the stutter. The lack of distractions in the picture caused the eye to focus solely on the figure – a similar feeling to that experienced with those with a stutter.
This was such a beautiful and thought provoking piece of art – I would have never thought to represent the stutterer in that way and it was incredibly creative of you. I will be thinking about this piece for a long time.
Looking at this beautiful and remarkable piece of art, I am reminded of how lucky I am to be able to articulate effectively and efficiently when it come to speaking. It strikes me to see how the ‘Ginger bread man’ in the piece was dragging along his burden and the sadness he felt with every step. This goes on to reflect how important it is for us to say what we want to say when and how we want it said and if we lose the ability to express ourselves in words then the consequences can be catastrophic in a society as ours which depends on effective communication… Lastly, viewing this from the perspective of the Doctor-Patient relationship then it is worth noting that a consultation involving a patient or doctor that is a stammerer is not going to be an easy one as it is going to last longer than an average consultation time and cost the NHS more and I intend to keep this at the back of my mind should I encounter such a patient. This may mean that I may lead the patient into writing down some of her problems or helping them maintain calm as stammerers tend to do better when they are relaxed.
This is a brilliant and very powerful representation of how a person with a stutter must feel and the burden they carry with them. It was a stark reminder of how important speech is in expression and how much we rely on this ability in everyday life, yet it is regularly taken for granted. The figure being modelled in black and leaning forward illustrates clearly his constant struggle with his stutter and the fact that he lives his life in the shadows suffering alone. Moreover, I felt the box not containing any words just letters showed how a person with a stutter must feel when they know what they want to say but just can’t form the words.
Having also always had words flow naturaly and easily I found this piece really thought provoking. I love that the anonymous figure is having to physically pull the letters behind them both in the difficulty of the act, reflecting the struggle with words, but also in that words forever trail behind where the figure is going. This piece for me reflects the struggle of the disability in an original and insightive way.
I really like the message and representation behind this sculpture as I personally suffered with a severe stutter as a young child but gradually grew out of it as I aged. Therefore I can appreciate the stigma and hypocrisy surrounding the disability as I experienced this first hand. However with certain words even today, I have difficulty saying and do occasionally stutter so I can really relate to this piece and often feel as though my words are trapped in a box just like in this piece. I am however a very chatty and talkative person and have never let it prevent me doing things even if I felt embarrassed sometimes in case I stuttered.
I found this piece to be very powerful and felt it did well to highlight the silent and lonely struggle that individuals with a stutter must go through everyday. Language is so crucial in all aspects of society and is so often taken for-granted by those not affected with a speech impediment. Despite being relatively common in society, the emotional and psychological implications of having a stutter are not often dwelt on by those not affected. I found the slumped posture and dejected appearance of the isolated individual underlined just how painful and lonely the struggle must be in a society that clearly is yet to fully understand the burden of having this disability. Thank you for this piece, it was incredibly thought-provoking.
This piece portrays a very simple yet powerful message. It really captures the struggle that those with a stutter can experience. The use of colour and contrast really emphasises this bold message and the jumble of coloured letters highlights the difficulties experienced by people with stutters in expressing their words. I feel that the burden of a stutter on the individual is well captured by the symbolic figure of the model and captures the possible feelings of isolation of an individual with a stutter.
I would never have thought to visualise a stutter in this way. I love the simplicity of the piece and how much emotion can be shown through something so simple. You can really tell how burdened someone with a stutter must feel, which I hadn’t thought about before.
Having somewhat of a person impact on me, I can relate to the imagery and the back story. It can be very frustrating to have people not listen to you because of a stutter.
Having known someone with a serious stutter in the past I had always thought that I knew what they were going through and that I could empathise with them. However, this piece of art really demonstrates how little I had known about the struggle that they must have faced doing such simple tasks. It has opened my eyes to the burden that speech impairment has on people. So simple but very powerful.
This piece highlights stutters in a simple yet effective way, and draws attention to the emotional toll of stutters that many don’t consider. The use of colour and light cleverly captures the message of this art and illustrates the patients perspective in a thought provoking way.
This piece represents the individuals perspective of how it feels to have a stutter in a profound way. The use of letters being such a burden to someone with a stutter is really emphasised in this piece through contrast of colour with the use of bold colourful blocks compared to the monochrome figure. The difficulties of having a stutter is not spoken of or presented often but you can tell that the artist has really thought this through