A woman is swinging a child on a swing in a park.  Block of text on the right: They have no idea how much I work. They have no idea how much I work. They have no idea what I do.

Ken Lum, They have no idea how much I work, 2021.  Digital print on archival paper, 198.12 x 259.08 cm.  Courtesy of Royale Projects and Ken Lum. © Ken Lum Image courtesy of the artist
Block of text on the right: They have no idea how much I work. They have no idea how hard I work. They have no idea what I do.

Ken Lum: Death and Furniture

June 25, 2022 - January 2, 2023

Located on level 1 in galleries 131 and 132.

Admission is always FREE for AGO Members, AGO Annual Pass Holders & Visitors 25 and under. Learn more.

EXHIBITION OVERVIEW

Wry, incisive and insightful, Ken Lum’s photographs, sculptures and installations probe the tensions between identity and representation, and challenge systemic hierarchies of social power differentiated by race, class and gender. A focused, career-spanning survey, Death and Furniture features a small but impactful selection of works from Lum’s internationally celebrated, 40-year practice. Many of these artworks foreground the ways in which the process of subject formation is negotiated individually and collectively. 

The exhibition takes its starting point the new body of work, Time. And Again. (2021), in which Lum employs his characteristic image-and-text format to explore issues around our contemporary existence and how that is defined by the anxiety and stress around work and labour. The title of the series evokes the essence of time as non-linear but circular and repetitive. The repetition is also embodied through the short, slogan-like written text placed next to the photographic portraits. However, such cyclical trait is paradoxical with the mortal human condition. Part of the cycle of life, death has formed an important recurrent theme in Lum’s art. In Time. And Again, the repeated phrases become a mantra or a prayer for the individuals to come to terms with their emotional and physical conditions. Death and Furniture also features works from Lum’s Necrology Series (2017 to present), Furniture Sculptures (1978 to present), and Photo-Mirror (1997), among which, his Furniture Sculptures represent some of Lum’s best-known three-dimensional works. Using ready-made, generic-branded sofas, the work transforms everyday objects into art and art experience, a disruption of both aesthetic and utilitarian values. 

The title of the exhibition, “Death and Furniture,” references a phrase used in philosophical debate to describe the different nature and bottom line of realities: “Furniture” being the hard reality that cannot be denied, while “Death” can be a cultural and social construct but also should not be denied. Bleak as it may sound, Death and Furniture humorously—like a black comedy— pinpoints the many urgent issues in our share and fragile human psyche against the backdrop of an ongoing global pandemic. 

Ken Lum is the recipient of the 2019 Gershon Iskowitz Prize at the AGO. The prize is awarded each year to recognize an individual’s contribution to Canadian art and to support their future work. Ken Lum: Death and Furniture is co-organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto and Remai Modern Saskatoon. The AGO’s presentation is curated by Xiaoyu Weng, Carol and Morton Rapp Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art.

Co-organized by the Remai Modern, Saskatoon and the Art Gallery of Ontario.


ABOUT THE ARTIST

Ken Lum is a Canadian artist living in the Philadelphia area where he is the Chair of Fine Arts at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design in Philadelphia. Lum has a long and distinguished exhibition record spanning four decades. His work is the subject of numerous solo exhibitions such as Ken Lum.Time. And Again. at Middelheim Museum, Antwerp, Belgium and Sculpture International Rotterdam at Kruisplein, the Netherlands (2021); What's old is old for a dog. at the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco (2018); and Ken Lum. Coming Soon, Vienna Kunsthalle Karlsplatz Public Space (2015). Lum has also participated in major group exhibitions such as Lost in America, at Der Neue Berliner Kunstverein (2020); Brand New: Art and Commodity in the 1980s at Hirshhorn Museum, Washing DC (2018); and Photography in Canada: 1960-2000, National Gallery of Art, Ottawa (2017). He has participated in international biennales, such as the Venice Biennale, the Sao Paolo Biennale, the Shanghai Biennale, the Carnegie International, the Moscow Biennial, the Istanbul Biennial, the Sydney Biennale, the Busan Biennale, the Liverpool Biennial, the Gwangju Biennale, the Moscow Biennial, and the Whitney Biennial, among others. His work was also part of Documenta 11. Since the mid 1990s, Lum has worked on several permanent public art commissions including for Vienna, the Engadines (Switzerland), Rotterdam, St. Louis, Leiden, Utrecht, Toronto and Vancouver. He has also realized temporary public art commissions in Stockholm, Istanbul, Torun (Poland), Innsbruck and Kansas City. His work can be found in the permanent collection of: Arco Foundation Collection, Madrid, Spain; Jumex Art Collection, Mexico City, Mexico; Musée d;Art Contemporain, Montreal; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Vienna Secession, Vienna, Austria; Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba and Kunstinstituut Melly (formerly known as Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art).

Ken Lum - About the Artist

Read more

A long-term educator, Ken Lum was formerly Professor of Art at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver where he was also Head of the Graduate Program in Studio Art; Bard College, Annendale on Hudson, New York, and the l’Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris.  A co-founder and founding editor of Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, Lum is also a prolific writer. A book of his writings, Everything is Relevant: Writings on Art and Life 1991 to 2018 was published by Concordia University Press to much critical acclaim. Lum holds an honorary doctorate from his undergraduate alma mater, Simon Fraser University.  Lum has been the recipient of many prestigious national and international awards including the Gershwin Iskowitz Prize, the Governor General’s Award in the Visual Arts, the Hnatynshyn Foundation Visual Arts Award, the Guggenheim Fellowship, and is a Penn Institute of Urban Research Fellow.  He was offered a Loeb Fellowship from Harvard University in 2011 which was not exercised.  In late 2017, Lum was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada. For Monument Lab, he was co-receiver of a Knight Foundation grant along with Paul Farber.  In 2018, he was granted a Pew Fellowship from the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage. Besides English, Lum speaks French and Cantonese Chinese.<

ARTWORKS FROM THE EXHIBITION

A young man sits on a bench on a city street.  Block of text on the right: Always waiting for a call to work. Always waiting, waiting, waiting. Always waiting for a call to work. Always waiting, waiting, waiting.

Ken Lum, Always Waiting for A Call to Work, 2021. Digital print on archival paper, 198.12 x 259.08 cm.  Courtesy of Royale Projects and Ken Lum. © Ken Lum Image courtesy of the artist
Block of text on the right: Always waiting for a call to work. Always waiting, waiting, waiting. Always waiting for a call to work.  Always waiting, waiting, waiting.

Ken Lum, Man on Bench
A man stands outside a restaurant.  Block of text on the right: What am I going to do with my kids while I work? What am I going to do with my kids while I work?

Ken Lum, What am I going to with my kids while I work, 2021. Digital print on archival paper, 198.12 x 259.08 cm.  Courtesy of Royale Projects and Ken Lum. © Ken Lum Image courtesy of the artist. Block of text on the right: What am I going to do with my kids while I work? What am I going to do with my kids while I work?

Ken Lum, Restaurant Worker
A delivery person stands on a city street.  Block of text on the right: I know I'm lucky. I have a job. I'm so lucky. to have a job. I know I'm lucky. I have a job.

Ken Lum, I know I’m lucky. I have a job. 2021.  Digital print on archival paper, 198.12 x 259.08 cm.  Courtesy of Royale Projects and Ken Lum. © Ken Lum Image courtesy of the artist
Block of text on the right: I know I'm lucky. I have a job. I'm so lucky. to have a job. I know I'm lucky. I have a job.

Ken Lum, Delivery Woman
A man stands in an urban park with his dog. Block of text on the right: I lost my job. What am I going to do? I lost my job. What am I going to do? What am I going to do?

Ken Lum, I Lost My Job, 2021.  Digital print on archival paper, 198.12 x 259.08 cm.  Courtesy of Royale Projects and Ken Lum. © Ken Lum Image courtesy of the artist
Block of text on the right: I lost my job. What am I going to do? I lost my job. What am I going to do? What am I going to do?

Ken Lum, Man with Dog
Be the first to find out about AGO exhibitions and events, get the behind-the-scenes scoop, and book tickets before your visit.
Sign up to get AGO news right to your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time.