Deafmetal, which makes jewellery and accessories for cochlear implants and hearing aids, has reinvented famous paintings and sculptures for an exhibition in London.
In a recreated photo, Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer’s famous Girl with the Pearl Earring painting from 1665 now sports a cochlear implant with Deafmetal’s golden safety chain featuring pearls, and coil hat (entitled ‘bride’) over the transmitter.
Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen’s Cupid and The Graces sculpture from 1823 was recreated by painter Andres Casas. The Graces now wear Deafmetal’s ‘bride’ coil hat over a cochlear implant transmitter, and a safety chain called viqueen attached to hearing aids.
These first two DeafmetalART works formed part of the Design and Disability Exhibition which Deafmetal participated in at the world’s most famous design museum, the V&A Museum in London in June 2025.
Finnish fashion designer Ms Jenni Ahtiainen founded Deafmetal after she developed hearing loss in 2018. She designs and creates the pieces.
Ms Natalie Kane, curator of the exhibition, wanted Ahtiainen’s hearing aid jewellery to be part of the fashion section because she said Deafmetal was a shining example of creativity in design being inspired by personal problem-solving.
The exhibition showcased the contributions of disabled, deaf and neurodivergent people and communities to design and contemporary culture, stretching from the 1940s to the present day.
Ahtiainen said: “Everyone has a desire to leave something of themselves behind. Something meaningful… I managed to create something that’s important enough that the prestigious V&A wanted to showcase it to the world.
“This selection is a dream come true for me as a designer. I never would have thought that losing my hearing would end up being one of the best things that’s ever happened to me – it led to my invention, and now also to this exhibition.”
She said Deafmetal aimed to make hearing loss more visual and expressive.
“We reached back through time to reinvent some of the world’s most famous paintings and sculptures… with something they’ve been missing all along…hearing devices and Deafmetals,” she said.
“DeafmetalART is our way to expose the world to Deafmetals through a snapshot art lesson. Art and design as self-expression have been my way to communicate with the world.
“I find it extremely important for people to realise they can have a meaningful impact by just speaking with their own voice, using the channels open to them. My channel is Deafmetal. Vermeer’s channel was painting. And Bertel Thorvaldsen’s, sculptures.”
The model in the Girl with the Pearl Earring recreation wears Advanced Bionics’ Naida cochlear implant and is Ms Aileen Gansloweit from Germany. The photographer is Ms Nicole Mantello.
Gansloweit, 33, said she had normal hearing until she was 26.
“One morning, I woke up and had lost the hearing in one ear due to a sudden and severe hearing loss. It couldn’t be recovered, and I struggled with intense vertigo,” she told Deafmetal.
“Six years later, I finally decided to go for a cochlear implant – and it turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. After just six months, I reached 98% speech understanding in noise. That says it all.”
She said Ahtiainen had helped her be seen and that without the jewellery, she would never have had the courage or confidence to wear her cochlear implant so openly and with such pride.
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