The US artist Christine Sun Kim was born Deaf. Now based in Berlin, she creates art that grapples with the fraught business of communication and her place in a mostly hearing world. This means using language and symbolism in ways that thoughtfully and humorously put her often marginalised experience front and centre. Part of an ongoing series of artist portraits by the nonprofit organisation Art21, this short documentary follows Kim around the globe to explore her confronting yet wry and medium-traversing body of work. This includes a series of black-and-white infographics charting frustrating interactions with non-Deaf people, and an enormous project to caption the buildings, sidewalks and even skies of Manchester in England. Through these bold, political statements, Kim directs attention towards the Deaf community in ways that are impossible to miss.
The art and echoes of Christine Sun Kim
This artist’s clever work moves Deaf culture from the margins to centre stage