Colly Metcalfe

4 Senses

About 4 Senses
Colly Metcalfe is a spoken word artist, poet and actor. As a Deaf artist finding new ways to share her voice, Colly has been researching, and will share, a piece of visual poetry using a visual vernacular performance style drawn from British Sign Language, thinking creatively about a range of elements and exploring the theme of a Deaf voice at the table. The performance of 4 Senses is filmed.

Exhibition Description
The exhibition of 4 Senses comprises a visual film without any sound or subtitles, true to a Deaf aesthetic, to explore how the visual language reaches both Deaf and hearing audiences. For visually impaired audiences there is a transcript description of the film created by Colly which can be read using a screen reader for audio.

Press play on the 4 Senses YouTube link or find the transcript below the video link

4 Senses Description Transcript

The piece is called '4 Senses'
 
Colly is a middle aged white woman with curly hair piled in a messy knot on top of her head.
 
The video is filmed outside on a bright, sunny, warm September morning, with the smallest chill under the warm. 
 
Colly is sitting on a blue wooden garden bench, with bright green bamboo plants waving in the gentle breeze behind her.
 
She raises her arms and begins to sign - there is no audio on this piece; only Colly signing in BSL and visual vernacular to tell a visual story of 4 senses
 
The poem is about seeing and experiencing a morning, and is called 4 Senses.  Colly is a deaf performer, so the poem is about how the morning feels to a deaf person.
 
Using flowing and graceful movements, Colly describes the cool of the morning, how the sunlight falls on her face and how the breeze tickles her skin; all the time using almost balletic choreographed movements to describe the sensations. 
 
With the sun on her face, Colly describes how, as the season changes from Summer to Autumn, the weather changes from hot to very slightly chillier.  Trees are full of fruit, ready to pick.  She describes how the fruit tastes, and how the fruit is gathered and stored ready for Winter.  Summer days were long and lazy; Winter days grow shorter.  Breeze blows around her and she explains how a leaf falls from a tree, landing on her arm and tickling as it falls to the ground.  
 
Colly describes how snail trail on the path, catches the light and looks like silver and how raindrops are trapped in the petals of a flower, shining and sparkling like trapped diamonds.
 
Colly’s face looks calm, serene and at peace with the world.
 
There are 2 lavender plants either side of Colly on the bench.  She runs her fingers through the plants and smells her fingertips - the smell of lavender makes her smile.
 
With eyes closed, she is completely at peace and quietly enjoying the silence of the dawn.
 
Opening her eyes, she sees the dawn birds beginning to wake and, using arms, hands and facial expressions, she describes the dawn chorus - without being able to hear the sounds.  
 
She has eyes to see, nose to smell, taste to enjoy and touch to hold, love and sign….  4 Senses are enough.
 

About Colly Metcalfe
Colly Metcalfe is a freelance deaf performer, actress and writer based in the North East. With an extensive background in physical theatre and improvisation, Colly brings a wild elegance to her storytelling, drawing her audience into the very centre of her world. Colly draws on her experiences as a deaf person and incorporates sign language into her delivery, offering a visual third dimension to her words. Colly has developed her own bold and unique style of writing and performance which brings together the deaf and hearing worlds.

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