Installation view of 《Moon Mind》 © Gallery Hyundai
Gallery Hyundai presents a solo exhibition 《Moon Mind》, by artist Christine Sun Kim,
on view through October 18. Marking Kim’s first gallery exhibition in Korea and
her first solo presentation with Gallery Hyundai, the exhibition will debut the
artist’s shaped canvas paintings for the first time.
Kim has long transformed personal experience into new forms of
language rather than direct representation, exploring the social structures of
sound and language through her practice. In 《Moon Mind》, Kim looks into her mind, memory, family, relationships with
those around her, and her roots, presenting forty shaped canvas paintings and
drawings in a rhythmic visual arrangement.
Installation view of 《Moon Mind》 © Gallery Hyundai
Christine Sun Kim’s practice studies how sound operates within
society, addressing questions of sound, language, power, access, and social
relations through a distinctive visual language.
Grounded in Deaf culture and her own experience, Kim examines the
rules of communication assumed by a society organized around spoken language.
Her work asks who gets to speak, who controls meaning, and which languages gain
recognition in public space.
Installation view of 《Moon Mind》 © Gallery Hyundai
《Moon Mind》 extends this line of inquiry while shifting
Kim’s focus from social structures toward her own interior world. While her
earlier works often foregrounded a critical engagement with the norms of a
hearing-centric society and the histories of the Deaf community, the works in
this exhibition treat the mind as a spatial form, giving it shape, weight, and
a sense of proximity.
Kim explores shifting emotions and memories through her
relationships with herself, her family, her children, friends, and those around
her. Through the experiences of becoming a mother, building a family, and
seeing her language and work reach wider audiences, Kim begins to treat the
form of the mind in a more playful and experimental way.
Her focus, once directed toward social structures and the power
relations embedded in language, deepens in this exhibition toward the personal
mind, family, intimate relationships, and layers of time and memory, opening a
new direction in her practice.
