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I teach a seminar course at Penn titled “The Chinese Body and Spatial Production in Chinatown.” The course recalls for me a long held idea I have had for a screenplay. I have never before written a screenplay and was unaware of screenwriting software until I had completed my script. The original script was 276 […]
This was a successfully completed proposal for the Kings Crossing development in a suburb of Vancouver, BC. It is sited on a prominent corner along the primary route for the transportation of agricultural and other resource goods from the hinterland areas to the city of Vancouver. The sculpture proposed is of an old draught horse […]
In Romantic literature, representations of the self are often haunted by the spectre of the doppelgänger, the concept of the lookalike double being at once a harbinger of misfortune and a symbol of divided existence. The doppelgänger counteracts aspirations of a subject founded on principles of autonomy and represents a rupture to the politics of […]
Published in Habiter, curated by Giorgia Volpe and André Gilbert, Quebec City: VU, 2010 In 2006, I was invited to Quebec City to participate in Habiter, an exhibition that took as its theme the Saint-Roch neighbourhood of the city. This neighbourhood constitutes the working-class heart of the city and is markedly multi-ethnic relative to the rest of […]
Published in Punctum: Reflections on Photography Salzburg: Salzburger Kunstverein, 2009 I took the picture of the Roland Barthes boutique in Beijing in 2009. At the time, I was astounded by my discovery, which gripped me with hilarity. But I can now see that I should not have been so surprised. Over the years, I have taken […]
Published in Canadian Art 22, no. 3 (fall 2005) Monday, 21 February 2005 The seventh Sharjah International Biennial opens in a little less than two months. Every morning, more emails arrive in my Sharjah inbox. I have numerous must-dos each and every day, including hounding artists to send in their statements for the catalogue and/or passport information […]
Published in theartsection: An Online Journal of Art and Cultural Commentary www.theartsection.com 2009 Twelve years ago I visited an exhibition at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris titled Face à l’Histoire (Confronting History). The exhibition brought together art objects and archival documents that dealt with French history between the years 1933 and 1996. Themes focused on the French […]
Published in Sharjah Biennial 7: Belonging, ed. Kamal Boullata Sharjah: Sharjah Art Foundation, 2005 In recent years, it has become de rigueur for major art exhibitions that survey large swaths of global art developments to draw parallels between the nomad as a figure of creative resistance and the cultural figure of the artist. The disseminations of […]
Published in Prix de Rome 2003: Sculpture, Art and Public Space Rotterdam: nai010 publishers, 2003 In The Practice of Everyday Life, Michel de Certeau drew a distinction between “space” and “place,” according the meaning of “practiced place”—that is, shaped by historical subjects who constantly redefine its use—to the first term, and according a configuration of discursive stability—that […]
Published in Rhonda Weppler and Trevor Mahovsky Lethbridge: Southern Alberta Art Gallery, 2006 A slab of concrete sidewalk patched up with a dollop of unevenly applied asphalt. Flat-topped metal newspaper boxes that double as platforms for Starbucks coffee cups or 7-Eleven drink containers, until they are, inevitably, lost to the wind. The urban landscape is full […]
Dia Art Foundation Artists on Artists Lecture Series, New York, 10 December 2013 When the Dia Art Foundation invited me to speak about one of the artists in their collection, I chose Ian Wilson for the most personal of reasons. I would like to take you back to 1983. I was running a little storefront […]
Lecture at the Banff Centre for the Arts Banff, Alberta, 7 February 2012 I want to start by describing three images as a way to start thinking about the intersection of photography, facticity, and politics. What you will see is that they present us with a revelation in excess of what they depict. This is […]
Published in Shanghai Modern, 1919–1945, eds. Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker, Ken Lum, and Zheng Shengtian Museum Villa, Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2004 In preparing for Shanghai Modern, the curators—Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker, Zheng Shengtian, and I—paid several visits to the West Lake (Xi Hu) city of Hangzhou, ninety minutes by train west of Shanghai. One of six capital cities […]
It was a picture-perfect day as I sat down on a public bench in the centre of Queen’s Park in Toronto. There were children playing about me, people casually strolling, and sunshine breaking unevenly through the canopy of oak and maple trees. I was early for my presentation at the nearby University of Toronto, so […]
LondonArt.co.uk 1999–2000 June 1999 I am on the train from Wroclaw to Warsaw. Earlier, a desperate looking man fled down the passageway of my car in an attempt to dodge the ticket enforcers. He was carrying a small bindle, much like the one Charlie Chaplin’s tramp character carried in City Lights. At the end of the […]
Published in Nka Journal of Contemporary African Art no. 10 (spring/summer 1999), Duke University Press Towards the centre a rising, mounting movement begins. Here some of the shipwrecked (among them an Arab), have awakened from their apathy, and with lifted hands push excitedly towards the horizon, where the rescue ship appears. Then the single stream of […]
Published in Canadian Art 15, no. 2 (summer 1998) Not only has art within modernism been rife with contradiction, it has been propelled by it. Calls for a new beginning in art have frequently been issued in unison with calls for the death of art. By rejecting representational modes predicated on realism, non-objective, or abstract, art aimed […]
The irony of converting a building whose function remains articulated in its very design into an entirely different use can have a certain appeal. There is a degree of enjoyable challenge in trying to remember when such and such a building served this or that function. But the constant flux of the city causes a […]
In 2015, on the sesquicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s death, the Philadelphia Inquirer reprinted its front page as it had appeared on April 15, 1865, a day after the American president’s assassination. I was struck by the appearance of the page, how differently it looked from today, with what seemed like illogical spacing, kerning, eclectic use of fonts, […]
It has been four months since my move to Philadelphia. I have been inundated with work at the University of Pennsylvania. Thankfully, the workload is becoming more manageable as my administrative role becomes more clearly defined. Punctuating my time on campus have been trips to St. Louis, New Orleans, Chicago and New York for art-related projects. […]
I write from my new home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. From where I sit I can see the sweep of downtown from the Center City District all the way to the Old City. I can see I. M. Pei’s Society Hill residential towers, just past Washington Square, which were an early 1960s effort to rejuvenate a […]
Since my last column entry, I have received two invitations to attend conferences in Canada dealing with the issue of “safeguarding” Canadian art and culture. One conference in Toronto had as its theme “What makes Canadian art Canadian?” while the other in Edmonton dealt with the question of “Who speaks for Canadian culture?” Both questions are […]
July 2015 marked my fourth year in the Philadelphia area. I continue to adjust to the differences that make life in the United States so vastly distinctive from life in Canada. These differences have much to do with the ways that many Americans and Canadians see themselves and their places in the world. I have […]
Much has been written about the status of the monument. The themes of timelessness and universality produced by monuments are self-serving ones that seek to wash the blood from the hands of those who have profited from the violent exploitation of others. Monuments express a narrowly defined identity while suppressing the many unreconciled strivings and […]
Time. And Again., is the title of the exhibition of 5 billboard scaled works presented along the Scheldt River promenade of Antwerp, Belgium. The exhibition theme is work in relation to time during pandemic days.
Installation comprised of two long walls facing one another, one in red with the word “Enemy” and one in blue with outline of man in front of a lectern. Work was made in 1979
I teach a seminar course at Penn titled “The Chinese Body and Spatial Production in Chinatown.” The course recalls for me a long held idea I have had for a screenplay. I have never before written a screenplay and was unaware of screenwriting software until I had completed my script. The original script was 276 […]
Collection Includes: Shirley’s Bakery Paul’s Auto Repair Superior Drapery Sandhu’s Maple Leaf Parvi Fresh Meat & Poultry McGill & Son Ebony Eyes Amir New and Used Leonida Pizzeria Kim Mart Taj Kabab Bauer Sausage Mondo Nudo Grace Chung Financial Michael Hassan: Leaving Law Danny’s Shoe Re-Nu Installation view Superior Drapery Jim & Susan’s Motel Maple […]
Collection includes: Kathy Chang(e) Birdie Africa Nancy Spungen Joey Stefano Gia Carangi Billie Holiday Tyrone Everett Jim Croce Blenda Gay Jessica Savitch Adam Goldstein (DJ AM) Lee Morgan Mario Lanza
The Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni accepted an invitation by Mao Zedong’s government to visit China in 1972, during the height of the Cultural Revolution (1966 – 1976). His assignment was to make a film documenting the achievements of Communist era China. Throughout his visit which included a trip by train from Hong Kong to Beijing, […]
Collection includes: Gillian & Smokey Pete Norris Could Use a Drink Miss Vancouver Bindy Sangeet: Employee of the Month Melly Shum Hates Her Job Garbage Pickers We are Sacred Blade Nancy Nishi, Joe Ping Chau: Real Estate Ask for Larry Myers A Woodcutter and His Wife 1989 Alex Gonzalez Loves his Mother and Father Here […]
Everything is Relevant: Writings on Art and Life 1991 – 2018 is 340 pages in length and is absent of several key essays I wrote because I could not locate them among old cd-roms. They have since been found, but too late for publication. The book has a diversity of essays but all linked by […]
Sculpture for Dreamhome (1980) My Arms are Ready to Embrace the Universe with Love (Four pulled out hide-a-beds) 1983 Red Circle (1986) Mirror Corner with Cushions (1985 Cushion dinghy (1987) Sculpture for living room/public lounge (1978) Partially buried sofa (1984) Tower of Love(seats) (1987) Untitled Furniture Sculpture Line (1986) Orange Sculpture in figure 8 Untitled […]
This was a successfully completed proposal for the Kings Crossing development in a suburb of Vancouver, BC. It is sited on a prominent corner along the primary route for the transportation of agricultural and other resource goods from the hinterland areas to the city of Vancouver. The sculpture proposed is of an old draught horse […]
2019 marks an ignominious anniversary in China. Thirty years will have passed since the violent crackdown on student protesters in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The events of 1989 continue to reverberate both in terms of China’s domestic politics and its relationship to the world. It is important to note that internal protests against the prevailing […]
I had the honour of being the inaugural exhibitor at the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam when it opened its doors in 1990. The exhibition was a survey of my furniture sculptures, language paintings, and photo-text works. One of the latter works included was Melly Shum Hates Her Job (1989). Represented […]
As part of World Portrait series comprised of seven canvasses, Ken Lum’s Skateboarder (for example) combines and holds in tension two contrary artistic impulses. The white monochromes signal an endpoint to painting as an uninflected surface that refuses all reference and representation to arrive at a condition of pure painting. The small black and white pictures punctuate the […]
Pi deals with the subject of statistics referring to the world with numerical information. Numerous mirrored panels are fixed to the side of walls in the 180 meter long Karlsplatz passageway in downtown Vienna, each furnished with a piece of etched writing. LED displays are mounted under each of these headlines. Based on statistical data […]
This is a permanent work installed in the fall of 2013 in both the cities of St. Louis, Missouri and New Orleans, Louisiana. The River Between Us: Homer Plessy and Dred Scott comprises of busts two important 19th century civil rights martyrs that became cause celbres in their respective home cities. The actions of Plessy […]
Collection includes: Drake Plaza 117 Dwight Eisenhower BLVD Plaza 88 International Food Center Midway Shopping Plaza Norgate Shopping Center Kings Mall
This work has been sitting in an outdoor storage in Edmonton since 2016. It was originally commissioned by the City of Edmonton vis a vis the Edmonton Arts Council (EAC) and intended to be sited on both ends of the pedestrian passerelle adjoining the New Walterdale Bridge. The city has expressed worry that First Nations […]
Collection includes: The Twelve Steps To Recovery From Alcoholism From Infancy to Late Adulthood The Paths Between Rejection, Fear, Comfort And, Acceptance From Anger to Forgiveness From Monday to Friday Pie Chart Series Maze Series
Monument to East Vancouver develops from a graffiti symbol that has circulated for several decades in East Vancouver. Over the years, the symbol has been adopted as an emblem for East Vancouver as a whole, but its appearance has generally been tentative rather than overt. The lack of overtness is, I feel, symptomatic of the […]
2001 Exhibition at Center for Contemporary Art Kitakyushu, Japan. The exhibition featured common Japanese publicity and advertising lettering along with cartoon figures that featured texts from despondent voices.
I did not win this context for a development located next to a well known and historical live action and musical theatre. A facing wall of the neighboring theatre forms the eastern side of the plaza with its set back building development. My idea for the plaza for the Theatre Park development is playful yet […]
Inaugurated in mid 2016, a sculpture commemorating more than 93,000 Canadians who fought in the Italian Campaign of World War II—an often overlooked but vital part of Europe’s fight for liberation from Nazi Germany—was unveiled beside Toronto City Hall. The battle referenced in the artwork occurred at Christmastime in 1943, when the Canadian Forces in the […]
This is a permanent public work sited in the information room (or library) of the National Museum of Ethnology (Museum Volkenkunde) in Leiden, The Netherlands on the occasion of the museum’s sesquicentennial. The work references Jules Virey, a French anthropologist highly popular at the time of the founding of the museum who argued that human […]
Lum created a new work for the Sign Show by merging existing pieces — “Bindy Sangeet: Employee of the Month” (1990) and “Alia Naffouj: Hooked on Tennis” (1998) — into a diptych. Within the context of message themes along the interstate, his billboard comments on labor, immigration, the American Dream, and comparative representations of aspirant […]
Collection includes: You Don’t Love Me Rebecca Rosenberg Sings Bye Bye Blackbird Onions Eggs Milk That’s it, You’re in Pain Idiot Hello. How are you? I Like Myself the Way I Am What is it Daddy? Hum Hum Hummm That’s Not Funny You’re Not Ugly I Can’t Believe I’m in Paris I’m So Sorry Give […]
Performance at Simon Fraser University lasting 8 AM to 5 PM non-stop, bracketing the typical academic day. The performance takes place at a site visible from many different vantage points, owing to SFU’s myriad of elevated walkways. By walking back and forth, I hoped to embody the actions of a swinging pendulum to a clock. […]
This is a work realized with Zheng Shengtian for the Moscow Biennale. Within the cylindrical pavilion, one enters a square room in which a circular facial mirror is installed. Within the cubic pavilion (which is joined to the cylindrical pavilion by the common step), one enters a circular room in which a square facial mirror […]
this work comprises a topographically political map of the world as it existed on January 1, 1960. This globe is designed for the foyer of a large community centr in Utrecht built to address a lack of community facilities in an area of high immigrant youth crime. The youths are teh children of immigrants who […]
Bronze statue of noted British Columbia explorer Simon Fraser. This is a commission for a new Vancouver development on the banks of the mouth of the Fraser river. The status of Fraser shows him in advanced age and sitting atop a tree stump in Rodin’s The Thinker pose.
This is a commission for a commercial realty development in Toronto, Ontario. The site is directly behind City Hall and involves a long corridor (passageway) from Bay Street to City Hall. Two bronze sculptures to be placed on either end of this corrdior signaling historical immigrants to this area in teh form of two children […]
Located on a hilltop just outside of Vicenza, an Italian town designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, sits the Villa Rotonda designed by the sixteenth century architect Andrea Palladio. On a recent visit to the site I was struck by how the building and its location cater to a particular type of vision. The […]
SEVERAL YEARS AGO, IN DAKAR, SENEGAL, on the occasion of Dak’Art, the largest art biennial in West Africa, I was on Gorée Island, a short ferry ride from Dakar, a place developed during the 17th century as an administrative post for the embarkation of slaves destined for the Americas. For more than three centuries, European […]
Tania Mouraud (b. Paris, 1942) has consistently pursued the relationship between the body and opticality in her art. Her Borderland (2008) series comprises landscapes that have been photographed with a filter made out of the same transparent plastic that is used to bale hay. The result is an image of the landscape that is unevenly […]
Taking into account several important attributes of the Vancouver Art Gallery’s site, this work serves as a direcitonal geographical and historical marker. The four installed boats include scaled down versions of a First Nations Longboat, Camptain Vancouver’s ship, the Komagata Maru (the infamous 1914 Indian immigrant ship) and a cargo ship that recently carried migrants […]
There are no necessary links between the cosmopolitanism of Western art discourse and the practical participation of non-Western art epistemologies. This is not because the worldly aspirations of Western art discourse represents little more than empty rhetoric but because its language was never meant to be aimed beyond the imagination of the Western ego. Much […]
Published in the National Post, 20 November 1998 During the politically traumatic yet economically prospering period of the 1920s, a debate ensued in Germany about the role art should play in social affairs. The debate was only in part about the potential of art for political agency. It was mostly about defining the correct proximity of […]