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Cues On Point

A work made of 2-channel video, color, sound, 4 min. 21 sec..
© 2022 Christine Sun Kim

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  • A work made of 2-channel video, color, sound, 4 min. 21 sec..

Date:

2022

Artist:

Christine Sun Kim
American, born 1980

About this artwork

In February 2020, Christine Sun Kim performed “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “America the Beautiful” in American Sign Language (ASL) at the Super Bowl alongside singers Demi Lovato and Yolanda Adams. Cues On Point reflects on the linguistic layers of that experience. The two-channel video shows a mixture of ASL signs and an agreed-upon signaling system that the artist’s longtime ASL interpreter Beth Staehle used to cue Kim on how long the singers were holding their notes. This ensured that the signed melody kept pace with the sung one. The text scrolling vertically, evoking a teleprompter, is the written notation of Kim’s own translation of the songs into ASL.

The work connects strongly with other threads in Kim’s practice, including the notion of the echo, which she has used to express the repetitions of communication that occur when speaking through a sign language interpreter or using a text app on a phone. The video also reflects the troubling circumstances around how the signed performance was broadcast. As Kim described in a New York Times op-ed published the following day, she was only fleetingly visible in the main broadcast, and even the ASL-dedicated online feed cut her performance short, when the camera pivoted away multiple times. In this way, Cues On Point is also a document of televisual absence, both in the specific case of Kim’s performance and more broadly in terms of Deaf representation in mass media.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Contemporary Art

Artist

Christine Sun Kim

Title

Cues On Point

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

2022

Medium

2-channel video, color, sound, 4 min. 21 sec.

Edition

1 of 3, plus 1 artist's proof

Credit Line

Through prior gifts of George F. Harding; Robert and Marlene G. Baumgarten Endowment Fund; Mr. and Mrs. Frank G. Logan Purchase Prize Fund

Reference Number

2023.2928

Copyright

© 2022 Christine Sun Kim

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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