I AM ECSTATIC RIGHT NOW
Emma can see monsters
How do you experience a conversation when you gradually lose your hearing? The artwork by Emma Can See Monsters (Emma Griffiths) offers a unique perspective on this question. The layered, three-dimensional form invites you to look from different angles, just as Griffiths “hears” a conversation. The work visualizes how her brain analyzes countless possibilities during every conversation to understand what is being said.
AUDIO TOUR
“Hearing is much more personal than we realize. You can’t explain what you don’t hear.”
Through her art, Griffiths shares how she experiences communication. While she can perceive sounds, understanding speech often remains a challenge. For her, hearing is not an automatic process but a complex puzzle where context, energy, and intuition come together. Step by step, the artist is finding the rhythm of her (new) daily life again.
To make this process visible, Griffiths created diagrams of conversations, noting down words and sentences that sounded similar. For example, she shows how a single sentence, like “I am ecstatic right now”, can initially feel like a blur of possibilities before its meaning becomes clear.
With her work, the artist invites you to reflect on the complexity of communication and the power of art to share invisible experiences. It is an ode to the resilience of the human spirit and an eye-opener for anyone who has ever taken words for granted.
“During a conversation, my brain creates a real-time list of possibilities. What I hear is constantly analyzed and compared to the situation. Eventually, it clicks: that one word or sentence fits the moment. But those other possibilities also remain for me as what I could have heard.”
emma can see monsters
Emma Griffiths is a multimedia artist from London, originally from Ellesmere Port, a small working-class town in Northwest England. From a young age, Emma developed a deep connection to art. For her, art is not just a form of self-expression but also a way to communicate and process her life experiences. Through art, Emma found a deeper connection with herself.
Emma’s current work focuses on her identity as a deaf person. She explores ways to be open about her experiences with hearing loss and how to transform her vulnerability into something educational and empowering. By exploring her relationship with hearing loss, Emma becomes an advocate for her diagnosis through her artworks.
ALIVE through the eyes of the artist
The 2025 theme, Alive, also focuses on (re)finding your rhythm after an unexpected event turns your life upside down. For Griffiths, living with hearing loss took her life in a completely different direction. Since then, she has experienced her reality differently, and her daily interactions have taken on new meaning.
“Life is unique for everyone, and for me, as a deaf person, it is shaped by a special relationship with language and sound. My hearing loss brings challenges, but it has also given me a unique position and perspective. I experience the world in my own way, somewhere between the hearing and deaf worlds. For me, all possible interpretations of what I hear are real. It is an essential part of how I experience life.”
