One Week of Lullabies for Roux, 2018
2
For One Week of Lullabies for Roux (2018), Kim invites visitors to sit on a bench and listen to seven lullabies composed for her daughter Roux. Kim started this project after noticing that her baby monitor had pre-programmed lullabies that could be set to play when infants cry. Kim, who is raising children in a mixed Deaf and hearing household, recalled “a feeling of unease” about these unfamiliar songs, so she “factored them out of the sound diet.” To counter this, she provided a text score to seven friends (who are also parents) with instructions to compose lullabies that omit lyrics and emphasize low frequencies. The artist-designed bench resembles a color-coded weekly pillbox, a reminder of the daily rituals and routines of childcare.
Christine Sun Kim, One Week of Lullabies for Roux, 2018
Installation view of Christine Sun Kim: All Day All Night (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, February 8-July 6, 2025). On wall, from left to right: Suggested Amount of Spoken Language with a Baby Whose Parents Communicate in Sign Language, 2018; How Do You Hold Your Debt, 2022; America’s Debt to Deaf People, 2022; Trauma, LOL, 2020. Center of room: One Week of Lullabies for Roux, 2018. Photograph by Ron Amstutz