A Quiet Time, 2023, single-channel video, color, sound, 14min 44sec
The video captures the process of the artist and participants learning and mastering sign language and singing “Nillili Mambo” in sign language. In Gwonseon-gu, Suwon, there are often times when you have to endure the tremendous roar of fighter-jet engines. The artist imagines the time during which she has to hear the noise from the airplane's takeoff and when it flies as a deaf space where sound is completely blocked out. In the silent time when all the sounds of the world are drowned out by the roar of the fighter jet, the artist learns and sings the song and dance Nillilimambo in the Sioux language. The artist aims to block out the noise in a time of unbearable noise and turn it into a time of active opportunity to empathize with the deaf environment through the experience of having one part of the senses blocked.
1. When an airplane takes off and makes noise, people in the same room quickly put on ear plugs.
Hong Lee simultaneously shows the text of Nillilimambo.
2. Hong Lee shows the signs for Nillilimambo and repeats it several times with everyone in the room until the noise stops.
The sign language for Nillilimambo is completely memorized.
3. This can be done by anyone, even if you are not an artist.
People who know more than one sign can teach people who know only one.
The longer you are in this space, the more you will be able to learn and become good at another language (sign language).