PUBLIC ART INSTALLATION BY CHRISTINE SUN KIM DEBUTS ON JANUARY 29

Kim’s work often combines references to the body, musical notation, written language, and American Sign Language (ASL). Here, she pairs text with a rendering of the sign for the word “future” in ASL. Typically, the sign for “future” is illustrated as a thin line. This mimics the hand as it moves away from the face in two arching gestures. Kim reimagines that line as a thick black mass in order to indicate multiple meanings—literal, conceptual, and emotional—that can be projected onto the word. For Kim, the same unpredictability that can make the future a source of anxiety can also create a sense of optimism. “Giving too much thought to the future can be overwhelming, especially in an uncertain political climate” she explains, but doing so can offer a reminder “that there are a wide variety of positive futures for everybody to dive into.”

Both Kim’s drawings and her work in sound—her primary medium—investigate the artist’s relationship to spoken languages and aural environments. As with her performance works, sculptural and video installations, and drawings and notational scores on paper, Too Much Future offers a reminder that visual or auditory perception of language does not necessarily result in easy comprehension.

The image, which is based on a charcoal drawing, will be unveiled on January 29 on the southwest corner of Gansevoort and Washington Streets.

Too Much Future is the seventh work to be featured in this series of public art installations, organized by the Whitney in partnership with TF Cornerstone and High Line Art. The series featured works by Alex Katz (2014), Michele Abeles (2015), Njideka Akunyili Crosby (2015–2016), Torbjørn Rødland (2016-2017), Puppies Puppies (2017), and Do Ho Suh (2017–18).

*농아 퍼포먼스 아티스트 크리스틴 선 김@MoMA 

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Christine Sun Kim (b. 1980, California) lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Selected exhibitions and performances include: De Appel, Amsterdam (solo, 2017); White Space Beijing (solo, 2017); Carroll/Fletcher, London (solo, 2015-16); Sound Live Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan (solo, 2015); nyMusikk, Oslo, Norway (solo, 2013); Rubin Museum, New York (2017); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2017); Shanghai Biennale (2016–17); Berlin Biennale (2016); and the Museum of Modern Art / PS1, New York (2015-16). Kim was awarded TED and MIT Media Lab Fellowships.