Ken Lum
Encyclopedia
Ken Lum is a Canadian
artist of Chinese heritage who lives and works in Vancouver
, British Columbia
. Working in a number of media
including painting, sculpture and photography, his art is conceptually oriented
, and generally concerned with issues of identity in relation to the categories of language
and portrait
ure.
Lum's family established roots in Canada in 1908 through his grandfather, Lum Nin, who arrived as a labourer for the Canadian Pacific Railway
company. Lum grew up in Strathcona, Vancouver neighborhood and later Kingsway (Vancouver)
in East Vancouver
. He attended Admiral Seymour Elementary School
and later Gladstone Secondary School
. His mother worked in a laundry mill and later in a garment factory while his itinerant father held various menial jobs. Lum's interest in art extends back to his youth, working as an illustrator for the Vancouver Public Library
. He also worked for the Province of British Columbia's Ministry of the Environment as a scientific research assistant in the area of pestology. Simultaneously, he worked for the Ministry as an illustrator of flora and fauna.
At Simon Fraser University
, while a science student he enrolled in a contemporary art class led by Canadian artist Jeff Wall
. Later he was a student of Ian Wallace
. At Simon Fraser, he twice won a University Graduate Fellowship. Lum is often cited as a member of the informally designated Vancouver School of artists, along with Wall, Wallace, Stan Douglas
, Rodney Graham
and Roy Arden
.
, where he had taught since 1990, resigning in 2006. Lum joined the faculty of Bard College's
Milton Avery Graduate School of Arts in 2005 and worked at Bard until 2007. For two years he was a visiting professor at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts
in Paris
. Lum has guest taught at the Akademie der Bildenden Kunst in Munich
, the China Art Academy in Hangzhou
, China
, the l'Ecole d'Arts Plastique in Fort de France, Martinique
, De Ateliers and the Rijksakademie
, both of Amsterdam
, the Maine College of Art
in Portland, Maine
and the Banff Centre
.
1991, Sydney Biennale in 1995, the São Paulo Art Biennial
in 1997, the Shanghai
Biennale in 2000 where he also helped edit the exhibition catalog, and at Documenta XI
in 2002. Other exhibitions include Johannesburg Biennale 1997, Liverpool Biennial
2006, Tang Contemporary Art (Beijing), Istanbul Biennial
2007 and the 2008 Gwangju Biennale
(Gwangju
, South Korea
) and Arrow Factory Beijing in 2010. A retrospective survey of Lum's work opened in February 2011 at the Vancouver Art Gallery
. He has been invited to exhibit in the Moscow Biennale
for 2011.
In 1997, Lum was a keynote speaker for the Universities Art Association of Canada annual conference. Lum was in 2006 keynote speaker opening the 3rd and final symposium of the 15th Biennale of Sydney
. In 2010, he was keynote speaker for the annual CIMAM World Museums conference held in Shanghai. He will be giving the keynote speech for the European League of Institutes of the Arts symposia December 2011.
From 1999 to 2001, Lum wrote an online journal for LondonArt, which chronicled both his passion for and misgivings about art. He co-founded Yishu Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art
in 2000, along with Zheng Shengtian, and was Editor-in-Chief until 2004. With Zheng Shengtian, he co-organized the first large scale international curators' tour of China in 2000, which included curators for Documenta
, Dia Art Foundation
, Renaissance Society, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
, Gate Foundation and the Art Gallery of Ontario
.
He has written numerous essays with themes ranging from the relationship of art to ethnology for the National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden, Netherlands
, to the art of Chen Zhen
http://www.chenzhen.org for the Kunsthalle Wien
(Vienna Kunsthalle). Other essays include a historical analysis of Canadian Cultural Policy, and one concerning issues of multiple identities in respect to Théodore Géricault
's The Raft of the Medusa, a paper which was presented to the Department of Caribbean Studies at Yale University
. In 2008, Lum completed an art book project with French philosopher Hubert Damisch
. Titled "Ultimo Bagaglio", it was created by Three Star Books of Paris. In 2009, Lum contributed an essay regarding the problems confronting art education today for Art School: (Propositions for the 21st Century) published by MIT Press.
Lum has served on numerous public committees, including the City of Vancouver's Public Art Committee from 1994 to 1996. He was on the board of directors for the OR Gallery (Vancouver) 1992 - 1994, Arts Initiative Tokyo
in Japan from 2001 to 2008, the Annie Wong Art Foundation (Hong Kong) from 1998 to 2002 and Centre A: Center for Asian Art (Vancouver) 2002 to 2007. Lum served on the Vancouver Art Gallery's Master Planning Committee from 2003 to 2004. In 2003, Lum was a juror for the Prix de Rome Prize in the category of Art in Public Space for the Rijksakademie
of Amsterdam
, writing the Prix de Rome essay for the catalog accompanying the prize. Since 2007, he has served on the advisory board of Fillip
, a critical art and cultural journal based in Vancouver. In 2008, Lum was a juror for the Chinese Contemporary Art Awards in Beijing to which he also wrote an essay on the winning artist Liu Wei
. Also in 2008, Lum served as juror for the Bloomberg Young Contemporaries Exhibition in London
, UK.
In 2010, he sat on the Canada Council
advisory committee dedicated to international engagement, served as juror for the City of Vancouver awards for exhibitions assistance as well as the Mayor's Art Awards (Vancouver). The same year, he was a presenter at the inaugural Yishu Art Awards held in Xi'an
, China. In 2011, Lum served as juror for the Brink Award (Seattle) for emerging North West artists (British Columbia, Washington and Oregon). He also became a member of the Canada Post Stamp Advisory Committee in Ottawa. Since 2011, Lum became a board member of The Power Plant
Contemporary Art Gallery (Toronto) and again board member of OR Gallery (Vancouver).
in Vancouver from 1983 to 1984. While Or Gallery Director, he curated PoCo Rococo, an exhibition held in Coquitlam Mall, a large suburban shopping centre. The exhibition included high school art students of Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam with established city artists. Lum was Project Manager for The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa 1945 to 1994, a 2001 exhibition conceived and curated by Okwui Enwezor
. Lum was curator of the 2004 NorthWest Annual for the Center of Contemporary Art in Seattle. In 2005, Lum co-curated
Shanghai Modern 1919-1945, an exhibition about the city's art and culture during the republican era
. He contributed an essay for the exhibition on the topic of Aesthetic Education in China. The same year, he also co-curated and contributed an essay for the 7th Sharjah Biennial
in The Emirate of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
, the largest international contemporary art
biennale in the Middle East
.
. The work, "There is no place like home," generated controversy as Lum saw the work as a response to the growth of the extreme right in Europe.
Lum's Four Boats Stranded: Red and Yellow, Black and White was installed upon the roof of the Vancouver Art Gallery
in 2001. The work, which can be viewed as a comment on immigration
and acculturation
, features four model boats: a First Nations
longboat
, a cargo ship
, the steam liner
Komagata Maru
, and George Vancouver's
ship HMS Discovery
. Each vessel has been placed at one of the building's compass points — north, south, east, and west — and painted in a colour intended to reflect the stereotyped racial vision presented in the hymn "Jesus Loves the Little Children
".
Lum realized a second permanent public art
commission outside St. Moritz
, Switzerland
in 2003 that dealt with the declining Romansch way of life in the remote Engadine region of Switzerland. The work titled Il Buolf Mus-chin Museum was a commission of the Walter A. Bechtler Foundation of Zurich and the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste.
In 2005, Lum completed "A Tale of Two Children: A Work for Strathcona," a permanent work commissioned by the City of Vancouver's Public Works Yard. Another major public art commission by Lum, sponsored by he city of Vienna
, Austria
, and Wiener Linien
(Vienna Public Transit), opened in downtown Vienna in January 2007. Titled Pi, the work is over 130 meter long and situated in a prominent pedestrian passageway by Vienna's Karlsplatz
subway interchange. In 2011, Lum realized a permanent public art commission for the city of Utrecht
, Netherlands
. The work is located in the Nieuw Welgelegen district, a troubled but dynamic multi-ethnic area of Utrecht that is undergoing redevelopment. The work titled January 1, 1960 consists of a monumentally scaled topographical and political globe of the world as it looked at the start of the year 1960.
In early 2010, Lum completed Monument for East Vancouver a permanent outdoor artwork located in the traditionally working class side of Vancouver. In Vancouver, he also realized From shangri-la to shangri-la, a temporary installation based on huts that were erected on the Maplewood mudflats in North Vancouver
during the second half of the twentieth century. Scale models of these structures appear to float over the surface of a corporate reflecting pond, creating a marked juxtaposition between their makeshift construction and the surrounding architecture, while evoking the utopian character of the mudflat community in the seemingly inexorable advance of urban development. In mid-2010, Lum won a public art commission for 570 Bay Street in Toronto
, Ontario
. Late in 2010, Lum was selected lead artist on the design team for the new Walterdale Bridge
replacement scheduled for construction in 2013 and 2014 in Edmonton, Alberta.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
artist of Chinese heritage who lives and works in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
. Working in a number of media
Media (arts)
In the arts, a media or medium is a material used by an artist or designer to create a work.-Architecture:In the art and science of architecture, the design and construction of buildings and interiors, infrastructure and other physical structures are created...
including painting, sculpture and photography, his art is conceptually oriented
Conceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
, and generally concerned with issues of identity in relation to the categories of language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
and portrait
Portrait
thumb|250px|right|Portrait of [[Thomas Jefferson]] by [[Rembrandt Peale]], 1805. [[New-York Historical Society]].A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness,...
ure.
Background
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
company. Lum grew up in Strathcona, Vancouver neighborhood and later Kingsway (Vancouver)
Kingsway (Vancouver)
Kingsway is a major road that crosses through the Canadian cities of Vancouver and Burnaby, British Columbia. Originally called Westminster Road, it was renamed Kingsway in 1913....
in East Vancouver
East Vancouver
East Vancouver is a region within the City of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Geographically, East Vancouver is bordered to the north by Burrard Inlet, to the south by the Fraser River, and to the east by the city of Burnaby...
. He attended Admiral Seymour Elementary School
Admiral Seymour Elementary School
Admiral Seymour Elementary School is an elementary school located in the Strathcona neighborhood of Vancouver.-History:Admiral Seymour school was named in honour of Sir Edward Hobart Seymour, a British Naval officer who took part in the capture of Canton....
and later Gladstone Secondary School
Gladstone Secondary School
Gladstone Secondary School, located in the Kensington-Cedar Cottage neighbourhood in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada is named after William Ewart Gladstone, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom four times between 1868 and 1894....
. His mother worked in a laundry mill and later in a garment factory while his itinerant father held various menial jobs. Lum's interest in art extends back to his youth, working as an illustrator for the Vancouver Public Library
Vancouver Public Library
The Vancouver Public Library is the third largest public library system in Canada, with more than 2.5 million items in its collections, 22 branches, approximately 375,000 cardholders, and nearly nine million item borrowings annually...
. He also worked for the Province of British Columbia's Ministry of the Environment as a scientific research assistant in the area of pestology. Simultaneously, he worked for the Ministry as an illustrator of flora and fauna.
At Simon Fraser University
Simon Fraser University
Simon Fraser University is a Canadian public research university in British Columbia with its main campus on Burnaby Mountain in Burnaby, and satellite campuses in Vancouver and Surrey. The main campus in Burnaby, located from downtown Vancouver, was established in 1965 and has more than 34,000...
, while a science student he enrolled in a contemporary art class led by Canadian artist Jeff Wall
Jeff Wall
Jeffrey "Jeff" Wall, OC, RSA is a Canadian artist best known for his large-scale back-lit cibachrome photographs and art-historical writing. Wall has been a key figure in Vancouver's art scene since the early-1970s...
. Later he was a student of Ian Wallace
Ian Wallace
Ian Wallace is the name of:*D. Ian M. Wallace, ornithologist*Ian Wallace , science fiction author*Ian Wallace , pioneer of Vancouver's conceptual art movement...
. At Simon Fraser, he twice won a University Graduate Fellowship. Lum is often cited as a member of the informally designated Vancouver School of artists, along with Wall, Wallace, Stan Douglas
Stan Douglas
Stan Douglas is an artist based in Vancouver, British Columbia. He has exhibited internationally, including Documenta IX, 1992, Documenta X, 1997, Documenta XI, 2002 and the Venice Biennale in 1990, 2001 and 2005...
, Rodney Graham
Rodney Graham
Rodney Graham is an artist and musician born in Abbotsford, British Columbia. He is most often associated with the Vancouver School...
and Roy Arden
Roy Arden
Roy Arden is a Vancouver artist.Arden has had solo exhibitions at the Ikon Gallery, Galerie Tanit and Vancouver Art Gallery. Other exhibitions at the Kunstmuseum Basel, and the Museum of Modern Art, Antwerp . His work is included in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art - was featured in...
.
Teaching
From 2000 to 2006, Lum was Head of the Graduate Program in Studio Art at the University of British ColumbiaUniversity of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...
, where he had taught since 1990, resigning in 2006. Lum joined the faculty of Bard College's
Bard College
Bard College, founded in 1860 as "St. Stephen's College", is a small four-year liberal arts college located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.-Location:...
Milton Avery Graduate School of Arts in 2005 and worked at Bard until 2007. For two years he was a visiting professor at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts
École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts
The École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-arts is the distinguished National School of Fine Arts in Paris, France.The École des Beaux-arts is made up of a vast complex of buildings located at 14 rue Bonaparte, between the quai Malaquais and the rue Bonaparte, in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Près,...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. Lum has guest taught at the Akademie der Bildenden Kunst in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, the China Art Academy in Hangzhou
Hangzhou
Hangzhou , formerly transliterated as Hangchow, is the capital and largest city of Zhejiang Province in Eastern China. Governed as a sub-provincial city, and as of 2010, its entire administrative division or prefecture had a registered population of 8.7 million people...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, the l'Ecole d'Arts Plastique in Fort de France, Martinique
Martinique
Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...
, De Ateliers and the Rijksakademie
Rijksakademie
The Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten is a two-year residency for visual artists, based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.Funded by the Dutch government, residents are granted a stipend and are allotted a personal studio in the former military barracks building in which the Rijksakademie is housed...
, both of Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, the Maine College of Art
Maine College of Art
The Maine College of Art is a fully accredited, degree-granting art college in the city of Portland, Maine. It should not be confused with the Art Institute of Portland which is located in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1882, the Maine College of Art is the oldest arts educational institution in Maine...
in Portland, Maine
Portland, Maine
Portland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...
and the Banff Centre
Banff Centre
The Banff Centre, formerly known as The Banff Centre for Continuing Education, is an arts, cultural, and educational institution and conference complex located in Banff, Alberta...
.
Awards
While at the University of British Columbia, he was awarded the Killam Award for Outstanding Research in 1998. Lum was appointed a Guggenheim Fellow in 1999. In 2003, Lum garnered the Distinguished University Professor Award and the Dorothy Somerset Award for Outstanding Achievement in Creative and Performing Art. He was awarded a Hnatyshyn Foundation Visual Arts Award in 2007. Lum was awarded an ArtMoves Special Award from the City of Torun, Poland in 2011.Art and Service Activities
He represented Canada at the Carnegie InternationalCarnegie International
The Carnegie International is the oldest North American exhibition of contemporary art from around the globe. It was first organized at the behest of industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie on November 5, 1896 in Pittsburgh. Carnegie established the International to educate and inspire the...
1991, Sydney Biennale in 1995, the São Paulo Art Biennial
São Paulo Art Biennial
The São Paulo Art Biennial was founded in 1951 and has been held every two years since. It is the second oldest art biennial in the world after the Venice Biennial , which serves as its role model....
in 1997, the Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
Biennale in 2000 where he also helped edit the exhibition catalog, and at Documenta XI
Documenta
documenta is an exhibition of modern and contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. It was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau which took place in Kassel at that time...
in 2002. Other exhibitions include Johannesburg Biennale 1997, Liverpool Biennial
Liverpool Biennial
Liverpool Biennial is a British international festival of contemporary art held in Liverpool. The festival comprises the International Exhibition, the John Moores Painting Prize, the Bloomberg New Contemporaries Exhibition and the Independents Biennial....
2006, Tang Contemporary Art (Beijing), Istanbul Biennial
Istanbul Biennial
The International Istanbul Biennial is a contemporary art exhibition, held every two years in Istanbul, Turkey, since 1987. The biennial is organised by the İstanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts. The Biennial aims to create a meeting point in İstanbul in the field of visual arts between artists...
2007 and the 2008 Gwangju Biennale
Gwangju Biennale
The Gwangju Biennale, which started in September 1995 in the city of Gwangju in the South Jeolla province of South Korea, was Asia's first contemporary art biennale. The purpose of Gwangju Biennale is globalization of art and it respect diversity rather than uniformity...
(Gwangju
Gwangju
Gwangju is the sixth largest city in South Korea. It is a designated metropolitan city under the direct control of the central government's Home Minister...
, South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
) and Arrow Factory Beijing in 2010. A retrospective survey of Lum's work opened in February 2011 at the Vancouver Art Gallery
Vancouver Art Gallery
The Vancouver Art Gallery is the fifth-largest art gallery in Canada and the largest in Western Canada. It is located at 750 Hornby Street in Vancouver, British Columbia...
. He has been invited to exhibit in the Moscow Biennale
Moscow Biennale
The Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art is one of the most important Russian cultural events and was founded in 2003.- First Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art :...
for 2011.
In 1997, Lum was a keynote speaker for the Universities Art Association of Canada annual conference. Lum was in 2006 keynote speaker opening the 3rd and final symposium of the 15th Biennale of Sydney
Biennale of Sydney
The Biennale of Sydney is an international festival of contemporary art, held every two years in Sydney, Australia. It is the largest and best-attended contemporary visual arts event in the country...
. In 2010, he was keynote speaker for the annual CIMAM World Museums conference held in Shanghai. He will be giving the keynote speech for the European League of Institutes of the Arts symposia December 2011.
From 1999 to 2001, Lum wrote an online journal for LondonArt, which chronicled both his passion for and misgivings about art. He co-founded Yishu Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art
Yishu Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art
Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art is the first English language journal to focus on contemporary Chinese art and culture. Each bi-monthly issue features scholarly essays on topical issues, interviews with artists and curators, conference proceedings, and critical commentary on exhibitions...
in 2000, along with Zheng Shengtian, and was Editor-in-Chief until 2004. With Zheng Shengtian, he co-organized the first large scale international curators' tour of China in 2000, which included curators for Documenta
Documenta
documenta is an exhibition of modern and contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. It was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau which took place in Kassel at that time...
, Dia Art Foundation
Dia Art Foundation
Dia Art Foundation is a non-profit organization that initiates, supports, presents, and preserves art projects. It was established in 1974 as the Lone Star Foundation by Philippa de Menil, the daughter of Houston arts patron Dominique de Menil and an heiress to the Schlumberger oil exploration...
, Renaissance Society, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
The Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is the main art museum in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The museum began in 1847 with the collection of Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans . Much of the museum's original collection was destroyed in a disastrous 1864 fire...
, Gate Foundation and the Art Gallery of Ontario
Art Gallery of Ontario
Under the direction of its CEO Matthew Teitelbaum, the AGO embarked on a $254 million redevelopment plan by architect Frank Gehry in 2004, called Transformation AGO. The new addition would require demolition of the 1992 Post-Modernist wing by Barton Myers and Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg...
.
He has written numerous essays with themes ranging from the relationship of art to ethnology for the National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden, Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, to the art of Chen Zhen
Chen Zhen
Chen Zhen , style name Xiaoqi , was a minister serving under the warlord Liu Bei during the late Han Dynasty period of Chinese history. Chen originally served Yuan Shao. At one time when Liu Bei was taking refuge under Yuan Shao, Chen was the one tasked to deliver Liu's letter to Guan Yu...
http://www.chenzhen.org for the Kunsthalle Wien
Kunsthalle Wien
The Kunsthalle Wien is an institution in Vienna for temporary exhibitions of contemporary international art. It opened in 1992, and was originally located on Karlsplatz, in a container-shaped building designed as a temporary site by the Austrian architect Adolf Krischanitz...
(Vienna Kunsthalle). Other essays include a historical analysis of Canadian Cultural Policy, and one concerning issues of multiple identities in respect to Théodore Géricault
Théodore Géricault
Jean-Louis André Théodore Géricault was a profoundly influential French artist, painter and lithographer, known for The Raft of the Medusa and other paintings...
's The Raft of the Medusa, a paper which was presented to the Department of Caribbean Studies at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
. In 2008, Lum completed an art book project with French philosopher Hubert Damisch
Hubert Damisch
Born in 1928, Hubert Damisch is a French philosopher specialised in aesthetics and art history, and professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris from 1975 until 1996....
. Titled "Ultimo Bagaglio", it was created by Three Star Books of Paris. In 2009, Lum contributed an essay regarding the problems confronting art education today for Art School: (Propositions for the 21st Century) published by MIT Press.
Lum has served on numerous public committees, including the City of Vancouver's Public Art Committee from 1994 to 1996. He was on the board of directors for the OR Gallery (Vancouver) 1992 - 1994, Arts Initiative Tokyo
Arts Initiative Tokyo
Arts Initiative Tokyo a not-for-profit independent collective of curators and art administrators based in Tokyo, Japan. It is especially concerned with contemporary art....
in Japan from 2001 to 2008, the Annie Wong Art Foundation (Hong Kong) from 1998 to 2002 and Centre A: Center for Asian Art (Vancouver) 2002 to 2007. Lum served on the Vancouver Art Gallery's Master Planning Committee from 2003 to 2004. In 2003, Lum was a juror for the Prix de Rome Prize in the category of Art in Public Space for the Rijksakademie
Rijksakademie
The Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten is a two-year residency for visual artists, based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.Funded by the Dutch government, residents are granted a stipend and are allotted a personal studio in the former military barracks building in which the Rijksakademie is housed...
of Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, writing the Prix de Rome essay for the catalog accompanying the prize. Since 2007, he has served on the advisory board of Fillip
Fillip
Fillip is a Vancouver-based contemporary art publishing organization formed in 2004. It publishes a magazine as well as books of critical writing...
, a critical art and cultural journal based in Vancouver. In 2008, Lum was a juror for the Chinese Contemporary Art Awards in Beijing to which he also wrote an essay on the winning artist Liu Wei
Liu Wei
Liu Wei is a Chinese professional basketball player. He currently plays for the Shanghai Sharks of the Chinese Basketball Association.-Basketball career:Liu Wei played with Yao Ming for five years on the Sharks before Yao went to the NBA....
. Also in 2008, Lum served as juror for the Bloomberg Young Contemporaries Exhibition in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, UK.
In 2010, he sat on the Canada Council
Canada Council
The Canada Council for the Arts, commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown Corporation established in 1957 to act as an arts council of the government of Canada, created to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts. It funds Canadian artists and...
advisory committee dedicated to international engagement, served as juror for the City of Vancouver awards for exhibitions assistance as well as the Mayor's Art Awards (Vancouver). The same year, he was a presenter at the inaugural Yishu Art Awards held in Xi'an
Xi'an
Xi'an is the capital of the Shaanxi province, and a sub-provincial city in the People's Republic of China. One of the oldest cities in China, with more than 3,100 years of history, the city was known as Chang'an before the Ming Dynasty...
, China. In 2011, Lum served as juror for the Brink Award (Seattle) for emerging North West artists (British Columbia, Washington and Oregon). He also became a member of the Canada Post Stamp Advisory Committee in Ottawa. Since 2011, Lum became a board member of The Power Plant
The Power Plant
The Power Plant is one of Canada’s leading public galleries devoted to contemporary art, located in Toronto, Ontario at Harbourfront Centre. As a non-collecting art gallery, The Power Plant has presented new and recent work by numerous Canadian artists along with their international peers.Over its...
Contemporary Art Gallery (Toronto) and again board member of OR Gallery (Vancouver).
Curatorial
Lum's activities include several curatorial projects. He was Director of the non-profit and then non-funded Or GalleryOr Gallery
The Or Gallery is a non-profit artist run centre based in Vancouver, Canada. The gallery is run by a paid Director/Curator and a voluntary Board of Directors. The Director/Curator of the Or is an appointed working artist who is hired for a limited time...
in Vancouver from 1983 to 1984. While Or Gallery Director, he curated PoCo Rococo, an exhibition held in Coquitlam Mall, a large suburban shopping centre. The exhibition included high school art students of Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam with established city artists. Lum was Project Manager for The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa 1945 to 1994, a 2001 exhibition conceived and curated by Okwui Enwezor
Okwui Enwezor
Okwui Enwezor is an Igbo Nigerian-born American curator, art critic, writer, poet, educator, and specializing in art history. He lives in New York.- Biography :...
. Lum was curator of the 2004 NorthWest Annual for the Center of Contemporary Art in Seattle. In 2005, Lum co-curated
Curator
A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...
Shanghai Modern 1919-1945, an exhibition about the city's art and culture during the republican era
History of the Republic of China
The History of the Republic of China begins after the Qing Dynasty in 1912, when the formation of the Republic of China put an end to over two thousand years of Imperial rule. The Qing Dynasty, also known as the Manchu Dynasty, ruled from 1644 to 1912...
. He contributed an essay for the exhibition on the topic of Aesthetic Education in China. The same year, he also co-curated and contributed an essay for the 7th Sharjah Biennial
Sharjah Biennial
The Sharjah Biennial is a celebrated cultural event in the Arab world. It is organised by the Sharjah Art Foundation.-Early days:Since its inception in 1993, the event has formed a cultural bridge between artists, art institutions and organisations locally, regionally and internationally...
in The Emirate of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...
, the largest international contemporary art
Contemporary art
Contemporary art can be defined variously as art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II. The definition of the word contemporary would support the first view, but museums of contemporary art commonly define their collections as consisting of art produced...
biennale in the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
.
Public Art
Lum has worked on several public art projects. In Vienna in 2000, Lum realized a 540 square metre work on the side of the centrally located Kunsthalle WienKunsthalle Wien
The Kunsthalle Wien is an institution in Vienna for temporary exhibitions of contemporary international art. It opened in 1992, and was originally located on Karlsplatz, in a container-shaped building designed as a temporary site by the Austrian architect Adolf Krischanitz...
. The work, "There is no place like home," generated controversy as Lum saw the work as a response to the growth of the extreme right in Europe.
Lum's Four Boats Stranded: Red and Yellow, Black and White was installed upon the roof of the Vancouver Art Gallery
Vancouver Art Gallery
The Vancouver Art Gallery is the fifth-largest art gallery in Canada and the largest in Western Canada. It is located at 750 Hornby Street in Vancouver, British Columbia...
in 2001. The work, which can be viewed as a comment on immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
and acculturation
Acculturation
Acculturation explains the process of cultural and psychological change that results following meeting between cultures. The effects of acculturation can be seen at multiple levels in both interacting cultures. At the group level, acculturation often results in changes to culture, customs, and...
, features four model boats: a First Nations
First Nations
First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...
longboat
Longboat
In the days of sailing ships, a vessel would carry several ship's boats for various uses. One would be a longboat, an open boat to be rowed by eight or ten oarsmen, two per thwart...
, a cargo ship
Cargo ship
A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year; they handle the bulk of international trade...
, the steam liner
Steamboat
A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...
Komagata Maru
Komagata Maru
The Komagata Maru incident involved a Japanese steamship, the Komagata Maru, that sailed from Hong Kong to Shanghai, China; Yokohama, Japan; and then to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in 1914, carrying 376 passengers from Punjab, India. The 356 of passengers were not allowed to land in...
, and George Vancouver's
George Vancouver
Captain George Vancouver RN was an English officer of the British Royal Navy, best known for his 1791-95 expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern Pacific Coast regions, including the coasts of contemporary Alaska, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon...
ship HMS Discovery
HMS Discovery (1789)
HMS Discovery was a Royal Navy ship launched in 1789 and best known as the lead ship in George Vancouver's exploration of the west coast of North America in his famous 1791-1795 expedition. She was converted to a bomb vessel in 1798 and participated in the Battle of Copenhagen. Thereafter she...
. Each vessel has been placed at one of the building's compass points — north, south, east, and west — and painted in a colour intended to reflect the stereotyped racial vision presented in the hymn "Jesus Loves the Little Children
Christian child's prayer
A Christian child's prayer is Christian prayer recited primarily by children that is typically short, rhyming or has a memorable tune. It is said before bedtime, to give thanks for a meal, or as a nursery rhyme. Many of these prayers have a long tradition and come directly from the Bible...
".
Lum realized a second permanent public art
Public art
The term public art properly refers to works of art in any media that have been planned and executed with the specific intention of being sited or staged in the physical public domain, usually outside and accessible to all...
commission outside St. Moritz
St. Moritz
St. Moritz is a resort town in the Engadine valley in Switzerland. It is a municipality in the district of Maloja in the Swiss canton of Graubünden...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
in 2003 that dealt with the declining Romansch way of life in the remote Engadine region of Switzerland. The work titled Il Buolf Mus-chin Museum was a commission of the Walter A. Bechtler Foundation of Zurich and the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste.
In 2005, Lum completed "A Tale of Two Children: A Work for Strathcona," a permanent work commissioned by the City of Vancouver's Public Works Yard. Another major public art commission by Lum, sponsored by he city of Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, and Wiener Linien
Wiener Linien
Wiener Linien are the company running the largest part of the public transit network in the city of Vienna, Austria. They are part of the city corporation Wiener Stadtwerke Holding AG.- Governing structure and statistics :...
(Vienna Public Transit), opened in downtown Vienna in January 2007. Titled Pi, the work is over 130 meter long and situated in a prominent pedestrian passageway by Vienna's Karlsplatz
Karlsplatz
Karlsplatz is a town square on the border of the first and fourth districts of Vienna. It is one of the most frequented and best connected transportation hubs in Vienna. The Karlskirche is located here....
subway interchange. In 2011, Lum realized a permanent public art commission for the city of Utrecht
Utrecht (city)
Utrecht city and municipality is the capital and most populous city of the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, and is the fourth largest city of the Netherlands with a population of 312,634 on 1 Jan 2011.Utrecht's ancient city centre features...
, Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
. The work is located in the Nieuw Welgelegen district, a troubled but dynamic multi-ethnic area of Utrecht that is undergoing redevelopment. The work titled January 1, 1960 consists of a monumentally scaled topographical and political globe of the world as it looked at the start of the year 1960.
In early 2010, Lum completed Monument for East Vancouver a permanent outdoor artwork located in the traditionally working class side of Vancouver. In Vancouver, he also realized From shangri-la to shangri-la, a temporary installation based on huts that were erected on the Maplewood mudflats in North Vancouver
North Vancouver, British Columbia (district municipality)
The District of North Vancouver is a district municipality in British Columbia and is part of the GVRD. It surrounds the City of North Vancouver on three sides.-Geography:The District of North Vancouver is separated from Vancouver by Burrard Inlet...
during the second half of the twentieth century. Scale models of these structures appear to float over the surface of a corporate reflecting pond, creating a marked juxtaposition between their makeshift construction and the surrounding architecture, while evoking the utopian character of the mudflat community in the seemingly inexorable advance of urban development. In mid-2010, Lum won a public art commission for 570 Bay Street in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
. Late in 2010, Lum was selected lead artist on the design team for the new Walterdale Bridge
Walterdale Bridge
The Walterdale Bridge is a bridge that spans the North Saskatchewan River in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was built by the Dominion Bridge Company, and was named after John Walter, an early settler who ran a ferry at this approximate location.The bridge is currently slated for replacement, with...
replacement scheduled for construction in 2013 and 2014 in Edmonton, Alberta.