By Zachary Small

In less than a week, Christine Sun Kim will perform for an audience of nearly 100 million people watching the Super Bowl. The artist, known for her transgressive distillations of sound and language, will deliver her American Sign Language rendition of the National Anthem as the pop musician Demi Lovato sings from nearby on stage.

At age 39, the Berlin-based American artist was stunned when she received the offer to represent the non-hearing community in what has become an annual partnership between the National Football League (NFL) and the National Association of the Deaf (NAD). Few artists, including herself, could ever imagine themselves performing at the center of a football stadium—let alone during one of America’s most-watched sporting events.