Face Opera II, 2013
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In Face Opera II (2013), Kim presented a lecture by leading her audience through a gallery space and scrolling through texts she programmed into multiple iPads. The title refers to The Book of the Courtier (1528) by the Italian Renaissance author Baldassare Castiglione. In the story, merchants and buyers speaking different languages attempt to communicate across a frozen river. Their words—translated by interpreters—become trapped in the ice, resulting in their deal falling through. For Kim, working with American Sign Language interpreters to communicate with non-signers carries a similar risk to that of Castiglione’s tale; her intentions or meaning can get lost. By drawing attention to the difficulties with translation, this work questions the assumptions of truth and immediacy often ascribed to spoken language and the social capital propped up by those assumptions.
Christine Sun Kim, Face Opera II, 2013
Installation view of Christine Sun Kim: All Day All Night (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, February 8-July 6, 2025). From left to right: Over and Over, 2016; Four Stages, 2016; Too Possessive for Score, 2015; Piano within Piano, 2015; TBD TBC TBA, 2015; Fort of Fortes, 2015; Almost a Score, 2015; Face Opera II, 2013; Excerpt from "Christine Sun Kim" for NOWNESS, 2011; Rehabilitating Silence, 2013. Photograph by Ron Amstutz