展期 Period：
2024.5.23—2024.7.13
艺术家 Artist：
克莉丝汀·孙·金 & 托马斯·马德 Christine Sun Kim & Thomas Mader地点 Venue：
新闻稿 Press Release：
空白空间将于2024年5月23日开幕艺术家组合克里斯汀·孙·金（Christine Sun Kim）和托马斯·马德（Thomas Mader）在画廊的首次个展“比空气更轻”（Lighter Than Air），展示他们新近创作的装置、影像、绘画等作品。展览将持续至7月13日。
长期以来，金和马德的创作都以语言、文字、身体、身份等作为他们的工作线索，通过具体而微的角度探讨交流的复杂性问题，并常常以幽默方式对社会中的刻板及偏见加以调侃与质疑。
展览的标题“比空气更轻”，于英文中意指热气球和飞艇等飞行器，以及比空气密度更低的气体等。而在此次金和马德的展览中，艺术家们将上述概念以及“空气”这一本不可见之物具体为了可见、可感的形态，并将它们结合到美国手语和口语中有关“吸入”和“呼出”的多重表达方式里。金和马德颇具玩味地将吸气和呼气这一微妙的身体动作转化成充气和放气的行动，继而探讨了有关引起注意的方式、梗图、流行文化中“鼻子呼气”的多重含义、体温及亚历山大·格雷厄姆·贝尔（Alexander Graham Bell）在聋人文化和教育中的角色等议题。
《注意》（ATTENTION）是一件动态装置作品。在美国手语（American Sign Language）中，吸引他人注意的两种表达方式：一是将手掌向下挥动并在他们视野范围内轻拍，另一种则是以手指指向其他的人或物。当向某人挥手时，意味着吸引他的注意力；当用手指指向另一人或物时，则意味着吸引他的注意力到那个被指向的对象上。基于这些语汇，《注意》中的两只大型充气手臂间断地指向被磨损的石头，在“充气-放气”这一此起彼伏的态势中，手臂和手如同舞蹈一般跃动并不断吸引着观众的目光，由此使得美国手语的语义在空间和身体上得以感知，也暗示了现实环境中人们不断被侵蚀殆尽的注意力。
在另一些作品中，艺术家们将目光投注到作为呼吸器官的口腔与鼻子上。与他们过往的作品一样，金和马德通过看似简单的游戏和对身体的观察，将手语和口语中复杂且更广泛的主题建立起联系。在以文字和语法作为要素，颇具游戏意味的作品《呼哈》（HooHaa）和《热图》（Heatmap）中，艺术家巧妙利用了口腔在呼气（Hoo）和哈气（Haa）这两个简单动作中所相应产生的冷气与暖气，以动画和绘画的形式对身体的功能复杂性、环境温度变化和言语障碍治疗等议题进行了探讨。维持呼吸的另一器官鼻子则是一个通常不会与美国手语产生直接关联的身体部位，但实际上它在其语法中扮演着重要的潜在功能。展览中的纸上绘画《连环笑话》（Running Gag）和雕塑《环形潜伏》（Circle Lurks）通过梗文化和互联网美学等直接探讨了亚历山大·格雷厄姆·贝尔在意大利米兰的第二届聋人教育国际大会（1880年）以及优生学世界观对手语和聋人文化的负面影响。
White Space presents Lighter Than Air, an exhibition by Christine Sun Kim and Thomas Mader, on view from May 23 to July 13. The duo’s debut at the gallery brings together their latest installations, videos, and drawings.
Kim and Mader’s collaborative practice has long been centered around themes such as signed and spoken languages, Deaf history, games and word play. Approaching the complexities of communication with specificity and nuance, their work often parodies and questions social stereotypes and prejudices with a sense of humor.
The titular phrase “lighter than air” refers to aircraft such as balloons and airships and the low density gasses that elevate these aircrafts. In this exhibition, Kim and Mader materialize this concept and the intangible “air” into palpable forms, applying them to the many modes of inhalation and exhalation inherent in signed as well as spoken languages. Playfully likening the subtle bodily movements to the actions of inflating and deflating, Kim and Mader explore ways of getting attention, the layered meaning of the “nose exhale” in memes and pop culture, body temperature, and the role of Alexander Graham Bell in Deaf culture and education.
ATTENTION is a kinetic installation that references two ways of directing attention in American Sign Language (ASL). By waving a hand downwards and bringing it into another signer’s field of vision, a person can signal they want the attention of another. Additionally, by pointing a finger at another person or thing, a signer can direct attention to that topic. Based on these signs, ATTENTION consists of two giant inflatable arms intermittently pointing at a worn-down stone. Alternating between inflation and deflation, the choreography of the arms and hands continuously attracts viewers’ attention. The kinetic dance makes the semantics of American Sign Language spatially and physically palpable, while alluding to the erosion of our real-life attention spans.
In the other works on view, the artists turn their focus to the respiratory organs—the mouth and nose. As with their previous projects, Kim and Mader connect complex and broader themes related to signed and spoken languages through the use of seemingly simple games and observations of the body. Language and grammar are central elements in the playful HooHaa and Heatmap, in which the artists make smart use of the observation that the sound “Hoo” produces a cold gust of air from the mouth, while the sound “Haa” produces a warm gust of air. They connect this observation to the complexity of body functions, changes in ambient temperature, and speech therapy. The nose is another organ that maintains our respiratory system. It typically isn’t a body part that is immediately associated with American Sign Language, but it does play a crucial role in the language’s grammar. In their drawing Running Gag and sculptural piece Circle Lurks, Kim and Mader borrow meme culture and internet aesthetics to directly address the detrimental effects of Alexander Graham Bell’s influence at the Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf (1880) in Milan, which led to the suppression of signed languages internationally for many decades, as well as his eugenicist perspective on sign language and Deaf culture.
