June 12, 2025
Christine Sun Kim
American Sigh Language
François Ghebaly
May 3 - June 14, 2025
Christine Sun Kim
Coinciding with Christine Sun Kim's museum survey in New York City on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art (through July 6, 2025) is a more modest presentation of insightful new works at François Ghebaly Gallery. Kim is best known for her charcoal drawings that juxtapose cryptic and fragmented language with abstracted shapes, as well as forms that resemble musical notation. Much of her work is about communication and mis-communication — Kim is deaf — and she examines the relationship between the hearing and non-hearing worlds. Her mixed media practice includes drawing, sound, video and site specific murals where she investigates politics and language, including the current administration's policies toward immigrants, the disabled and transgendered people.
This compelling exhibition opens with the sound installation Community Sigh (2025). Here, Kim presents five sound stations equipped with spinning turntables playing recordings of deaf people sighing. Kim recorded the sighs of sixty-six deaf acquaintances from around the world and pressed these sound clips onto vinyl which loop over an eighteen-minute duration. Together, they create a cacophony of disarming and ambiguous sounds that fill the otherwise empty gallery space. In the center of each record is a hand made ceramic stabilizer.used to weigh down the disk for improved sound quality— something that is inconsequential to the Deaf.
As in her exhibition at the Whitney and installations at other major institutions, Kim often places her framed drawings on top of large-scale site-specific wall paintings. In American Sigh Language, the large mural spans all four walls. Recalling musical notation four sets of four parallel lines, ebb and flow across the gallery. In the center of the middle wall they converge — the space between the lines contracts into a u-shaped valley or deep divot that is weighted down by a single awkwardly scrawled quarter note. On one wall atop this "score" are a trio of modest-sized framed drawings entitled Heavy Relevance (2024). The lines within these charcoal on paper works parallel the shapes of the wall mural. Within each iteration, the note rests over an expanded set of lines, implying a greater burden.
In the middle of another wall are the framed works Mind Rock and Mind in Rock (both 2025), both based on the American Sign Language (ASL) idiom MIND ROCK. This concept is meant to convey that one's mind is made up and one's thoughts have become heavy. In these drawings, Kim plays with the relationship between a large black shape, an empty musical staff and the words "mind" and "rock." Heavy Very Ghosted (2024) also juxtaposes curvilinear notation lines and sets of quarter notes that dot the composition, yet remain outside of the notational structure. The abstract drawing acknowledges aspects of minimalism as well as Fluxus, through Kim's incorporation of poetic phrases. Her drawings have been said to resemble "infographics," yet while they offer proclamations they are more poetic and witty than instructional or didactic.
Outside the main gallery in the viewing room is the animated two channel video InEx (2024) made in collaboration with her (hearing) husband Thomas Mader. Here, Kim and Mader focus on the nose. In ASL grammar, the nose plays an important role and Kim and Mader emphasize the notion of breathing in and out — inhaling and exhaling — by having animated nostril-sized symbols including hearts, envelopes, hugging couples, sleeping z's, etc. — pass by their noses. These symbols are either expelled by or absorbed into the nose, disappearing with each breath. A ticker-tape-like caption at the top of the image states the time of day, as well as what Kim and Mader were doing and thinking. Shot in tight close-up that frames their noses between the top of their mouth and just below the eyes, the six minute animation moves through the day as it keeps pace with Kim and Mader's interactions and activities.
Without being preachy or didactic, Kim's works evoke how she navigates the world. They are not a longing for what she lacks, but are more concerned with how she imagines sound and how it functions in the hearing world, as well as how she interprets gestures and comes to terms with racism, pity and misunderstanding. Kim continues to chart new territory by expanding her drawing practice into explorations that incorporate video, as well as sound. With each new presentation, her work becomes more nuanced and compelling, both formally and conceptually.
American Sigh Language
François Ghebaly
May 3 - June 14, 2025
Christine Sun Kim
Coinciding with Christine Sun Kim's museum survey in New York City on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art (through July 6, 2025) is a more modest presentation of insightful new works at François Ghebaly Gallery. Kim is best known for her charcoal drawings that juxtapose cryptic and fragmented language with abstracted shapes, as well as forms that resemble musical notation. Much of her work is about communication and mis-communication — Kim is deaf — and she examines the relationship between the hearing and non-hearing worlds. Her mixed media practice includes drawing, sound, video and site specific murals where she investigates politics and language, including the current administration's policies toward immigrants, the disabled and transgendered people.
This compelling exhibition opens with the sound installation Community Sigh (2025). Here, Kim presents five sound stations equipped with spinning turntables playing recordings of deaf people sighing. Kim recorded the sighs of sixty-six deaf acquaintances from around the world and pressed these sound clips onto vinyl which loop over an eighteen-minute duration. Together, they create a cacophony of disarming and ambiguous sounds that fill the otherwise empty gallery space. In the center of each record is a hand made ceramic stabilizer.used to weigh down the disk for improved sound quality— something that is inconsequential to the Deaf.
As in her exhibition at the Whitney and installations at other major institutions, Kim often places her framed drawings on top of large-scale site-specific wall paintings. In American Sigh Language, the large mural spans all four walls. Recalling musical notation four sets of four parallel lines, ebb and flow across the gallery. In the center of the middle wall they converge — the space between the lines contracts into a u-shaped valley or deep divot that is weighted down by a single awkwardly scrawled quarter note. On one wall atop this "score" are a trio of modest-sized framed drawings entitled Heavy Relevance (2024). The lines within these charcoal on paper works parallel the shapes of the wall mural. Within each iteration, the note rests over an expanded set of lines, implying a greater burden.
In the middle of another wall are the framed works Mind Rock and Mind in Rock (both 2025), both based on the American Sign Language (ASL) idiom MIND ROCK. This concept is meant to convey that one's mind is made up and one's thoughts have become heavy. In these drawings, Kim plays with the relationship between a large black shape, an empty musical staff and the words "mind" and "rock." Heavy Very Ghosted (2024) also juxtaposes curvilinear notation lines and sets of quarter notes that dot the composition, yet remain outside of the notational structure. The abstract drawing acknowledges aspects of minimalism as well as Fluxus, through Kim's incorporation of poetic phrases. Her drawings have been said to resemble "infographics," yet while they offer proclamations they are more poetic and witty than instructional or didactic.
Outside the main gallery in the viewing room is the animated two channel video InEx (2024) made in collaboration with her (hearing) husband Thomas Mader. Here, Kim and Mader focus on the nose. In ASL grammar, the nose plays an important role and Kim and Mader emphasize the notion of breathing in and out — inhaling and exhaling — by having animated nostril-sized symbols including hearts, envelopes, hugging couples, sleeping z's, etc. — pass by their noses. These symbols are either expelled by or absorbed into the nose, disappearing with each breath. A ticker-tape-like caption at the top of the image states the time of day, as well as what Kim and Mader were doing and thinking. Shot in tight close-up that frames their noses between the top of their mouth and just below the eyes, the six minute animation moves through the day as it keeps pace with Kim and Mader's interactions and activities.
Without being preachy or didactic, Kim's works evoke how she navigates the world. They are not a longing for what she lacks, but are more concerned with how she imagines sound and how it functions in the hearing world, as well as how she interprets gestures and comes to terms with racism, pity and misunderstanding. Kim continues to chart new territory by expanding her drawing practice into explorations that incorporate video, as well as sound. With each new presentation, her work becomes more nuanced and compelling, both formally and conceptually.