Ken Lum
Mirror Works,
1998
mirror, wood, photos, 46 x 37 cm resp. 137 x 100 cm
courtesy: Andera Rosen Gallery, New York

Ken Lum: Mirror Works, 1998
Foto: Saxinger

Ken Lum presents the mirror to us not only as an object, but also as a metaphor for spatial reflection. By hanging several "Mirror Works" (1998) in a relationship of mutual correspondence, he examines the picture space with the simple accent of the wooden frame, yet at the same time, he also addresses the surrounding space that expands endlessly in manifold branches.

"The mirror is an utopia as much as it is a place without a place. In the mirror I see myself where I am not: in an unreal space which appears virtually behind the surface; I am there where I am not, a kind of shadow that endows me with my own visibility, shows me where I am absent. But the mirror sends me back to the place I am actually occupying; from the mirror I discover myself to be absent in the place where I am, as I see myself there".

The anonymous family photos that the artist has stuck into the wooden frames, create another level of meaning that hangs like a narrative veil between space and mirrored space. One's own counterpart (the other me in the mirror) becomes entangled in the sentimental surroundings of "strangers'" snapshots. Reality and fiction, layers and stories, foreground and background merge into one another.

Ken Lum (°1956 / Can, Vancouver)