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The crowd gathers at the late Terry Adkins' temporary monument in City Hall Courtyard, on the opening day of Monument Lab. Photo by Lisa Boughter.

Questions of Practice: Artist Ken Lum on Creating Art that Emanates from "the Local"

Questions of Practice: Artist Ken Lum on Creating Art that Emanates from “the Local”

When asked about the concept of “the local” within the continually globalized realm of the visual arts, mixed media artist Ken Lum pointed out that artmaking is, in many ways, a spatial practice. “All art emanates from some local place,” Lum says.

Artist Ken Lum on creating art that emanates from “the local.” Filmed at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania on September 8, 2015.

Visual artist Ken Lum is a professor in the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to his work in Philadelphia, he was head of the graduate program in studio art at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver and on faculty at Bard College. Lum’s work has been exhibited at the São Paulo Biennial, Documenta 11, Whitney Biennial, and Gwangju Biennale, among others. He is the co-founder and founding editor of Yishu Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art. With the Penn Institute for Urban Research, Lum was co-curator of the 2014 Center-funded project Monument Lab: Creative Speculations for Philadelphia.