The art and echoes of Christine Sun Kim

14 MINUTES

This artist’s clever work moves Deaf culture from the margins to centre stage

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.

Video by Art21

Director: Chiemi Karasawa

Producer: Nick Ravich

Explore more

Photo of a hand using a black marker to redact text on paper several words are boxed to be emphasised.
POETRY

Reignite your creative fire with blackout poetry – the art of framing what’s already there

Directed by Andrew Lavers

Image showing a black high heel, a red and blue ball and a grey ankle boot on a light blue background.

Small talk is an art, not a triviality. Here’s how you can master it

Video by the Harvard Business Review

An elderly woman in a patterned beanie holding a red card with holes punched into it in front of her face.

Circles possess a defiant beauty in the abstract works of Howardena Pindell

Directed by César Martínez Barba

Close-up of hands holding clear frogspawn with visible black eggs in a natural outdoor setting.
Psyche Exclusive

A filmmaker’s never-realised ideas become an exploration of self-doubt

Directed by Cameron Nicoll

Abstract blue and white line drawing of multiple nude female figures, seen from various angles, arranged in a pattern.

A minotaur shifts shapes and sexes in this ferociously original animation

A film by Chaerin Im

Silhouette of person standing before an orange light, creating a glowing halo effect on a neutral background.

Toxic materials become sculptures of light and air in this artist’s hands

Directed by Anika Kan Grevstad

The artist Marina Abramović in a long, white dress stands in an abandoned building, lit by studio lights. The walls are rundown and the floor has tracks for camera equipment. The woman faces forward, with her hair in a side braid, and the atmosphere is dramatic and moody.

In a single, unbroken shot, Marina Abramović surveys her artistic evolution

A film by Art21

Still image from a VHS tape depicting child and a woman blowing out birthday cake candles together, both wearing red, with people in the background.

Love is no simple thing for a mother and the daughter she raised alone

Directed by Ellie Wen