Christine Sun Kim. Photo: Yang Hao 杨灏 for White Space Beijing
Christine Sun Kim
PROJECT
States of Mind continues Christine Sun Kim’s practice of translating American Sign Language (ASL) into graphic form. The mural draws on the artist’s interest in English phrases – such as ‘What’s on your mind?’ or ‘What do you have in mind?’ – which evoke the idea of the mind as something that holds weight or occupies space. The work references several compound phrases in ASL that incorporate the sign for ‘mind’: MIND FLASH, MIND GONE, MIND OUT, MIND HERE, MIND ON MIND, MIND MACHINE. These are translated into an expansive landscape of black masses, which the artist refers to as ‘MIND boulders’. Kim’s mural bears down upon the viewer, inviting audiences to examine their own state of mind at a time of increasing social, cultural and global pressures.
The acquisition of this work is supported by Decjuba Foundation. The project is proudly supported by RMIT University.
ABOUT
Christine Sun Kim’s practice considers how sound operates in society. Musical notation, written language, infographics, American Sign Language (ASL), the body and strategically deployed humour are all recurring elements in her practice. Working across drawing, performance, video and large-scale murals, Kim explores her relationship to spoken and signed languages, built and social environments, and to the world at large.
Kim has exhibited and performed internationally, including at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Queens Museum, and the Drawing Center, New York (US); Gwangju Biennale (South Korea); Secession, Vienna (Austria); the Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt (Germany); Manchester International Festival, Manchester (UK); MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge (US); and at the Whitney Biennial, New York (US).
Her awards and fellowships include an MIT Media Lab Fellowship, a United States Artists fellowship, a Ford and Mellon Foundations’ Disabilities Future Fellowship, and the Prix International d’Art Contemporain of the Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco. Her works are held in numerous collections, including at the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D. C., LACMA and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles (US), and Tate Britain in London (UK).