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The Exhilarating Anger of Christine Sun Kim


Her new show at the Whitney reveals that language is a social currency that constantly places the deaf at a disadvantage.

Deploying drawings, diagrams, musical notation, text, wall painting, and video, Kim explores how sound, silence, and oral language are social-political currencies that place the deaf at a constant disadvantage, in areas ranging from motherhood to politics. Suggested Way of Getting a Baby’s Attention by Waving Hands or Stomping on the Floor Instead of Using Voice is a graph of symbols that reveals how a deaf parent communicates with a hearing child. Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, appears occasionally as a satanic figure due to his advocacy for “oralism,” which favors lip-reading and speaking over signing and made communication for the deaf far more difficult.

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