Celebrate the work of Christine Sun Kim at ICA LA!

In partnership with Art21, ICA LA presents a sneak peek of the latest episode of Art in the Twenty-First Century titled “Friends & Strangers.” Premiering on PBS later this year, “Friends & Strangers” celebrates artists, including Christine Sun Kim, whose work facilitates collective responses to hardship, builds and sustains communities, and works to bring us closer to one another.

As evident in her Bounce Back mural on view at ICA LA, Christine Sun Kim’s practice considers how sound operates in society, deconstructing the politics of sound and exploring how oral languages operate as social currency. Musical notation, written language, infographics, American Sign Language (ASL), the use of the body, and strategically deployed humor are all recurring elements in her practice. Working across drawing, performance, video and large-scale murals, Kim explores her relationship to spoken languages, to her built and social environments, and to the world at large.

The screening will be followed by a conversation about Christine Sun Kim’s work with Chiemi Karasawa, Director of “Friends & Strangers”; Amanda Sroka, Senior Curator at ICA LA; Gan Uyeda, Partner at François Ghebaly; moderated by Emma Nordin, Associate Director of Education Initiatives, Art21.

ASL interpretation provided by Pro Bono ASL.

Chiemi Karasawa is an award-winning Director/Producer who founded Isotope Films in 2007 to develop and produce non-fiction content for all media. Her character-driven stories shine a light on underserved communities, everyday heroes and artists. Notable documentary credits include: “AKA Jane Roe” for FX Network, “Amazing Grace” (Neon Entertainment,) “Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me”, (IFC/Sundance Selects), “Billy The Kid” (HBO) and “The Betrayal: Nerakhoon” which was nominated for an Oscar and won the Emmy Award for Non-fiction Filmmaking. Her films have premiered at Sundance, Berlin, SXSW and Venice Film Festivals, garnering numerous awards and distinctions. She has guest lectured at NYU, The New School, SVA, Boston University, and SFAI on Documentary Filmmaking and is a member of the Documentary Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. Prior to her work in documentary, Karasawa was a Script Supervisor in feature films and television for directors Martin Scorcese, Spike Jones, Jim Jarmusch and Rebecca Miller. She is currently at work on a feature documentary about social justice activist, Amanda Nguyen. Karasawa is a graduate of Boston University’s College of Communication with a degree in Film & TV Production, and currently resides in Brooklyn.

Amanda Sroka is a curator whose creative work focuses on global histories of contemporary art with an emphasis on interdisciplinary practices and a specialized interest in artwork that operates at the intersections of our personal, political, and material worlds. She is the Senior Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles where she has recently organized presentations dedicated to the work of Carmen Argote, Alberta Whittle, Trương Công Tùng, and Christine Sun Kim, and supported with the 2023 exhibition, Milford Graves: Fundamental Frequency. From 2014 to 2022, she was the Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art where she organized solo exhibitions with Martine Syms, Zoe Leonard, Senga Nengudi, Marisa Merz, Yael Bartana, and Jitish Kallat as well as a forthcoming exhibition with Lawrence Abu Hamdan. There, she also curated collaborative group exhibitions including Philadelphia Assembled with artist Jeanne van Heeswijk (2017) and Fault Lines: Contemporary Abstraction by Artists from South Asia featuring the work of Tanya Goel, Sheela Gowda, Prabhavathi Meppayil, and Zarina (2020). Prior to her time in Philadelphia, Sroka was a curatorial assistant at the New Museum in New York.

Gan Uyeda is Partner at François Ghebaly Los Angeles where he has worked closely with Christine Sun Kim since 2018, overseeing her studio, facilitating exhibitions, and assisting curators, educators, and the press in interpreting her practice. Raised in Honolulu and based in Los Angeles, Gan holds degrees in art history and theory from Brown University and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has curated independently and as part of the curatorial collective Third Object, and his writing has appeared in Frieze Magazine, The Seen, and a number of exhibition catalogues.

Emma Nordin is a proud resident of New York City and dedicated arts administrator with a history of fostering partnerships and producing memorable experiences for audience members. As the Associate Director of Education Initiatives at Art21, she supports Art21’s mission to educate and expand access to contemporary art through the production of documentary films, resources, and public programs. Her responsibilities include facilitating new and existing educational programming and projects, such as Art21 Educators, organizing and executing public programs, and developing resources to accompany films. Previously, she worked at the New-York Historical Society, Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, and Tenement Museum. She was selected to give SITE Santa Fe’s Innovative Thinker lecture in 2021, in addition to past conference presentations at the American Alliance of Museums, National Art Education Association, and others. She was also a former Vice President and Conference Chair, Trustee-at-Large, and intern of New York City Museum Educators Roundtable (NYCMER). She completed her graduate studies in the John W. Draper Interdisciplinary Master’s Program at New York University and her Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Christine Sun Kim: Bounce Back is on view at the museum until September 10, 2024. Major support for Christine Sun Kim: Bounce Back at ICA LA is provided by Palatine Capital Partners.