Christine Sun Kim’s latest exhibition at the Whitney Museum explores the visual language of sound, delving into the complexities of Deaf experience and the quest for a universal communication.
For Christine Sun Kim, art is a language. As a Deaf artist, she has spent her life searching for ways to convey ‘sound and its meaning visually.’ Her latest exhibition at the Whitney Museum, ‘All Day All Night,’ is a testament to this pursuit.
Christine Sun Kim is a sound artist and designer based in Berlin, Germany.
Born in 1978 in the United States, she is known for her work that explores the relationship between sound, space, and architecture.
Kim's projects often involve creating immersive audio experiences that engage with the physical environment.
She has exhibited her work internationally and has received several awards for her contributions to sound art.
The Artist’s Visual Language
Kim’s charcoal graphics are deep, often humorous critiques of the gaps between the hearing and Deaf worlds. In pieces like ‘Degrees of My Deaf Rage in the Art World,’ she unleashes frustration inspired by experiences that are honest and intense. Her drawings evoke a sense of tactility, with visible smudges and the motion of her hands resonating across the paper.
A Lifelong Search for Sound
Kim’s search for sound’s visual equivalent spans several decades. In her early work, ‘Selby Circle’ (2011), she dropped paint brushes on a rattling drum to create images on the drum pad. However, this piece falls flat compared to her newer works, which feature abundant musical notation and charts suspended in mid-air.
The Power of Collaboration
Kim’s personal life is a rich tapestry of languages. Her partner, artist Thomas Mader, is German, and they speak to their child in multiple languages: English, German, and American Sign Language (ASL). This linguistic diversity informs her collaborative work with Mader, where they discover new gestures and words together in video pieces.
A Universal Language
Kim’s frustrations blossom into hope, as she continues to search for a universal language. In ‘One Week of Lullabies for Roux’ (2018), one of the few sound pieces in the exhibition, you can listen to music composed by her friends using her text instructions. This piece showcases the artist’s community coming together to create their own worlds of sound.
Kim’s exhibition at the Whitney is a testament to her ongoing pursuit of visualizing sound and its meaning. Through her charcoal graphics, musical notation, and collaborative works, she invites viewers to contemplate the complexities of language and communication.
