Visiting artists in UNT’s PLATFORM Speaker Series use sound, ceramics and beadwork to give voices to marginalized communities

Friday, February 7, 2020 - 14:24
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DENTON (UNT), Texas — Artist Christine Sun Kim, who was born deaf, had long been told sound wasn’t part of her world. 

Now, Kim uses the medium of sound in performance and drawing to explore her relationship with spoken languages and her aural environment. 

“I actually know sound. I know it so well,” Kim said in her 2015 TED talk. “That it doesn’t have to be something just experienced through the ears. It could be felt tactually, or experienced as a visual or even as an idea.”

Her transgressive exhibitions and performances have been featured all over the world including the Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Berlin and Shanghai Biennials and Sound Live Tokyo. She performed the National anthem in American Sign Language at this year’s Super Bowl as Demi Lovato sang.

Kim will come to Denton Feb. 10 for the third annual PLATFORM Speaker Series hosted by the Department of Studio Art and Onstead Institute in the College of Visual Arts and Design at the University of North Texas.

She will be the first of three artists visiting this spring in the PLATFORM Speaker Series, which invites contemporary artists, critics and curators whose work is fueled by critical discussions around marginalized voices and narratives. In addition to a public lecture, speakers meet with students in individual and/or seminar settings, providing additional contact and in-depth conversations.

MacArthur Foundation Fellow Joyce J. Scott, a jewelry maker and sculptor who uses beadwork as a medium to address cultural stereotypes and issues of racism and sexism, will be next in the series March 16 in conjunction with the UNT Fine Arts Series. Scott’s works are influenced by a variety of cultures, including Native American and African. She relates her work as an artist to her family's craft traditions and to her African American heritage. Her work has appeared at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Baltimore Museum of Art, among others. 

Beth Lo, a ceramicist and mixed media artist whose work is informed by issues of family and her Asian American background, will conclude this semester’s series April 16. Lo’s work has been exhibited internationally and she has received numerous honors, including the United States Artists Hoi Fellowship in 2009.

SPRING 2020 PLATFORM SPEAKER SERIES LECTURES

Christine Sun Kim

When: 6:30 p.m. Feb. 10

Where: Greater Denton Arts Council, 400 E. Hickory St., Denton

Joyce J. Scott

When: 5:30 p.m. March 16 (This event has been cancelled)

Where: Greater Denton Arts Council, 400 E. Hickory St., Denton

Beth Lo

When: 4 p.m. April 16 (This event has been cancelled)

Where: Room 223 in the UNT College of Visual Arts & Design, 1201 W. Mulberry St., Denton

All lecture events are free and open to the public. 

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