Finger Talk

This summer, Wellcome Collection presents ‘Finger Talk’, a powerful new British Sign Language (BSL) 360-degree audiovisual installation by artist and curator Cathy Mager. Created in collaboration with deaf artists and contributors, this free immersive installation foregrounds BSL as a living and evolving language with a rich cultural history and a vital expression of identity, resilience, and community.

Running from 8 July to 17 October 2025, ‘Finger Talk’ invites both deaf and hearing audiences to experience the shared heritage and cultural identity of the British Deaf community. Through an interweaving blend of historic sign language film, contemporary performances, animated sequences, and soundscapes, the large-scale installation challenges the medical view of deafness by reframing 'hearing loss' as 'deaf gain'.

To deepen this immersive and multi-sensory experience, haptic vests will be available for visitors to wear, enabling them to feel the vibration of the soundscape as it resonates through the body and inviting audiences to reconsider how sound can be experienced.

At the heart of the installation is a series of real audiograms donated by members of the Deaf community. These clinical tests measure a person’s degree of hearing and traditionally use symbols such as birds singing to depict “normal” hearing and chainsaws to indicate “severe” or “profound” hearing loss. The results of these tests often carry significant implications for a deaf person’s life, from educational options to social inclusion. Mager, who has a ‘flat-lined’ audiogram herself, reclaims and reimagines this narrative by transforming these symbols of diagnosis to an animated flock of birds in flight.

Mager’s installation includes rare archival footage from the British Deaf Association, dating back to the late 1920s that capture joyful everyday moments of deaf people using sign language and socialising at picnics and sporting events. These unique and remarkable films document some of the earliest depictions of finger spelling and native BSL, providing an insight into the history and heritage of the Deaf community in a way that has rarely been seen and is often overlooked.  

As well as historic footage, ‘Finger Talk’ will feature contemporary sign language performances by deaf artists using Visual Vernacular (VV) - a powerful form of storytelling that combines sign language and mime. These artistic performances express themes of loss, resilience, humour and community, and are accompanied by a specially commissioned soundscape composed by deaf and disabled musicians. Illustrations of finger-spelling guides, dating back to the 17th century and drawn from Wellcome Collection and the Royal National Institute for Deaf People archive, held at UCL Library, will surround the installation.

Together, these elements create a richly immersive installation that invites audiences to step out of a hearing-centred world and into a sensory space shaped by Deaf perspectives.

Curated by Mager in collaboration with deaf artists, ‘Finger Talk’ is accompanied by a Deaf-led programme of workshops, tours, and performances that offers not only insight into the heritage of the British Deaf community, but also the opportunity for visitors to feel the emotional power and intelligence of sign-based communication.

‘Finger Talk’ runs alongside ‘1880 THAT: Christine Sun Kim and Thomas Mader’, a free exhibition at Wellcome Collection exploring sign language and identity (on view until 16 November 2025).  

Event programme

 'United by Language'

Thursday 10 July, 17.00-20.00

Performances
In venue | Booking encouraged + drop in
Relaxed, BSL 

This event celebrates Visual Vernacular (VV) and Poetry as powerful art forms that bridge language, culture, and identity within the Deaf community, highlighting their vital role in Deaf culture. Join artists from the UK and France as they perform across the building in response to the themes of ‘Finger Talk’ and '1880 THAT'. Featuring Olivier Calcada, Zoe McWhinney and Brian Duffy. Curated by actor and writer Ace Mahbaz. 

'Shadow Signs: Youth Workshop'

Saturday 2 August, 14.00-16.00

In venue | Booking required
BSL
For young people aged 14-25.

Join deaf actors David Ellington and Ciaran O'Breen for a physical movement workshop that teaches you how to create silhouettes with your hands and body. The workshop is inspired by our collections and explores the Victorian pastime of shadowgraphy. Participants will be guided through a number of techniques using hand gestures, finger flexes and body movement, and will have the opportunity to invent their own shadow signs, create a story or perform with others.

'I Fow You: Youth Workshop'

Saturday 28 August, 14.00-16.00

In venue | Booking required
BSL
For young people aged 14 -25

Join Maral Mamaghanizadeh and Alice Bowen-Churchill for this creative projections workshop. Participants will create large-scale bespoke wall projections using photographs, drawings and Wellcome Collection archival materials, that explore Deaf culture, experience and history.

'Hands That Hold History' 

Thursday 11 September, 16.00-20.00

Multi-part event: performances and workshop
In venue | drop in and ticketed
Relaxed, BSL 

Experience a powerful BSL-led journey in deaf-led dance performances, workshops and tours across Wellcome Collection. Where movement, memory, and meaning intertwine to uncover hidden histories held within our bodies and hands.

• ‘Resist’. Dance performances. Two deaf dance artists occupying the gallery linking 1880 THAT and Finger Talk. A durational performance throughout the evening. Performers: Anna Seymour and Raffie Julien. 
• 'Shadow Signs’. Creative workshop. Physical movement workshop that teaches you how to create silhouettes with your hands and body, inspired by the Harry Ash booklet in our archive. Performers: David Ellington and Ciaran O’Breen.
• ‘Hands That Hold History' ‘. Guided performance by Nadia Nadarajah (award-winning actress, presenter, and advocate for Deaf access in the arts) occupying the gallery linking '1880 THAT' and 'Finger Talk'.

Deaf-led tour with Peter Brown

Thursday 18 September, 18.00-19.30 & Tuesday 23 September, 11.00 – 12.30

Tour
In venue | Booking required
BSL

'1880: Sign Language in Danger'

Join deaf Historian Peter Brown for a tour looking at the Milan Conference of 1880 which outlawed sign language, and its far-reaching impact on the Deaf community. The tour will also describe how a new dawn began in 1960 with demands for sign language to be treated as a language in its own right.

 For further events information please visit the Wellcome Collection What's On page. 

Notes to editors

For a BSL version of this press release and for further information and image requests, contact:

Definitions

Deaf and deaf: Wellcome Collection uses ‘Deaf’ with an upper-case ‘D’ to describe a group of people who identity as part of a ‘Deaf community’, or an entity like a ‘Deaf school’. Lower case ‘d’ is used to describe individual people – a ‘deaf person’ for example. However, people have different preferences about whether they use ‘D’ or ‘d’ to describe themselves.  We are using both ‘deaf’ and ‘Deaf’, depending on individual preference. 

Deaf culture: Is a term used to describe Deaf people who identify as a linguistic minority and who use sign language as their main form of communication. They also share life experiences, beliefs, attitudes, history and other cultural traditions.

About the artist

 Cathy Mager is an artist and curator known for her powerful public realm works that explore new perspectives on equity, climate change and heritage. Since 2020 Mager has pioneered sign language projection artworks on major public buildings including The Cunard - Liverpool, Arnolfini - Bristol, Duolun Museum of Modern Art and Suhe Haus - Shanghai. Her seminal film and projection artwork 'Sign Night' commissioned by the BBC and The Space has been featured at Theatreformen, London Film Festival, Glasgow Centre for Contemporary Art and Superfest. 

In 2021, she founded Spectroscope, an international collective of deaf and disabled artists and their most recent collaborative artwork 'Night Bloom' was featured at Science Gallery as part of Vital Signs: Another World is Possible, 2024-2025. She gave the keynote address for Beyond Limits for Liverpool Biennale in 2024 examining disability and the arts. Her work often draws on unsung historical archives and she directed the heritage interpretation programme for Bristol Beacon 2021-2023, overseeing a series of permanent artworks that brought to the fore lost histories.

She was previously Director of Forest of Dean Sculpture Trail and Artistic Director of the award-winning ‘The Ring’ for Canal & River Trust. Over the past 20 years she has led large-scale art projects that explore intersection of social history and environment for Forestry England, Southbank Centre, Art on the Underground and Historic Royal Palaces.

Visitor Information

• ‘Finger Talk’ runs from 8 July – 17 October 2025 
• Admission is free. 
• Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 18:00, Thursdays from 10:00 to 20:00, closed Mondays. 
• Address: Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road, NW1 2BE. 

https://wellcomecollection.org/visit-us

Access Information  

• Step-free access is available to all floors of the building. 
• Ear defenders, tinted glasses, tinted visors and weighted lap pads will be available on request.  
• All exhibition texts will be available in screen readable formats via QR codes.

About Wellcome Collection

Wellcome Collection is a free museum and library. We believe everyone’s experience of health matters. Through our collections, exhibitions and events, in books and online, we explore the past, present and future of health.

You can find us near Euston station in London and at wellcomecollection.org. Our exhibitions and events are always free. You can use our library and view items from our collections free of charge too – you may just need to book in advance.

Wellcome Collection opened in 2007. We care for many thousands of items relating to health, medicine and human experience, including rare books, artworks, films and videos, personal archives, and objects.

We’re part of Wellcome, a charitable foundation supporting science to help build a healthier future for everyone.

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