Acclaimed Canadian contemporary artist Ken Lum spoke with AGOinsider about death, class, childhood and sofas

Since late June, AGO visitors have been witnessing the challenging and thought-provoking artworks of Death and Furniture – the debut AGO solo exhibition by acclaimed Canadian artist Ken Lum. This small but impactful career survey features works of sculpture, photograph, text and installation, spanning the last four decades of Lum’s practice. 

With Death and Furniture, Lum boldly explores the tensions between identity and representation, and challenges the systemic hierarchies of social power differentiated by race, class and gender. The exhibition features his newest body of image-and-text work, Time and Again, which zeroes in on how the pandemic exacerbated people’s feelings of stress and anxiety in relation to labour. In addition, the exhibition includes works from Lum’s Necrology Series (2017 to present), Furniture Sculptures (1978 to present), and Photo-Mirror (1997). 

On September 21, Lum will appear at the AGO for a conversation with Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy, Director, Kunstinstituut Melly, and Xiaoyu Weng, AGO Carol and Morton Rapp Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art, about his work.

AGOinsider recently connected with Lum and learned more about his approach to creation, and his ideas about death, class, childhood (and sofas!)  

AGOinsider: Both Four French Deaths in Western Canada and Necrology place viewers in front of uniquely crafted obituaries. Can you elaborate on what interests you about the use of obituaries as a lens for examining human identity?

Lum: All my work dating back to the early 1980s is concerned with the question of how individuals come to be human subjects and how they enter into the process of social identity. I’ve always been interested in lives lived, and then in telling a story about each life. Whether through image-text, or portrait logo works, they’re always about somebody. The viewer is offered indicators for reading the depicted or referenced person. A host of questions also open up such as who is this person?  Why is that person in distress? Death is related to speculations of the other, because death is nothing if not a marker of a life lived. Death verifies life. Life and death are tethered terms. But my work is fundamentally about telling the story of a life and how that subject was constituted while alive. 

I don’t see my fascination with death as a subject as a morbid interest. I have a lifelong habit of reading obituaries …. Read more in AGOinsider, linked HERE.

A Message from the Manager, Learning & Studio Programs 

Recharge your creativity in one of our fall artmaking courses, on sale now! 

All AGO staff and volunteers are eligible for a 50% discount on one Adult Course and one Children, Youth or Family Course (two courses max per season). 

This discount can be used for yourself and your immediate family (partners, spouses, children etc.)

 What are the details? 

 Questions? 

• Contact Donna Asprovski at [email protected]. 

See you soon in the Gallery School!

Tiana Roebuck, Manager, Learning & Studio Programs

[email protected]

Our Gallery Guide team is hosting a talk with Artist Zun Lee (and Curator Sophie Hackett), on What Matters Most: Photographs of Black Life– this Thursday September 15, from 6 – 6:30pm, and all volunteers are invited to attend. 

This exhibition features the AGO’s Fade Resistance Collection. Assembled by Toronto artist Zun Lee, the collection gathers Polaroid instant prints of African-American family life from the 1960s to the early 2000s. This debut presentation of more than 500 instant prints – including portraits, graduations, birthdays and family reunions – is a meditation on the role of family photographs in creating and maintaining a sense of Black identity, on memory and loss, on the ethics of institutional versus communal care, and on the importance of safeguarding visual culture. 

This talk will take place over Zoom (linked below).  A reminder: you can’t pre-register for Zoom calls, simply click on the link below to join us, on Thursday evening. This talk will be recorded and shared for those that can’t attend.

Thank you to Paola Poletto and Natalie Lam, from the Education and Public Programming team, for sharing this invitation! – Holly 

Time: Sep 15, 2022 06:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting:

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81835814665

Dear Staff & Volunteer Colleagues,

We hope everyone had a great summer. As we prepare for fall exhibitions and programming at the Gallery, we want to provide an update to our COVID-19 guidelines. 

Updated Provincial Self-Isolation Guidelines

• Individuals that test positive with symptoms are recommended to self-isolate and stay at home until their fever is resolved and symptoms have been improving for at least 24 hours. 
• Asymptomatic individuals with a positive test result do not need to self-isolate unless symptoms develop. If symptoms develop, they should self-isolate immediately.
• For a total of 10 days after the date of testing or symptom onset (whichever is earlier/applicable), individuals should continue to wear a well-fitted mask in all public settings. 

Masking Recommendations

• Aligning with Public Health safety measures, we continue to strongly encourage masking for all members of the Gallery in situations including but not limited to, the new public health guidelines and where physical distancing may be challenging, as it is an effective method of reducing transmission. 

Symptoms Not Related to COVID-19

• Some symptoms such as runny nose, sneezing, sore throat, and headache may also be features of other non-COVID-19 respiratory infections. 
• To prevent community transmission of all infectious diseases, all individuals with new symptom(s) of any infectious illness should stay home when they are feeling sick.

Additional Information

• If you are uncertain of what steps to take, take this self-assessment if you have any symptoms of illness or tested positive for COVID-19: https://covid-19.ontario.ca/self-assessment/

The Gallery will continue to monitor the impact of COVID-19 in the city and the province, and given the unpredictability of the pandemic, will respond to changes and plan for the future. Thank you for your ongoing commitment to keeping our Gallery community healthy and safe.

Questions? 

Contact Kyle Nhan – Manager, Safety & Wellness (he/him)

[email protected]

416 979 6660 x 6281

Hello Everyone,

Yesterday, we heard the news of Queen Elizabeth II’s passing. You can imagine, with Canada being part of the Commonwealth, there are strict protocols that we are following. We are taking our direction from the Province. For example, our flag is at half-mast.

There will be time to reflect on the meaning of the end of the second Elizabethan age. In addition to her royal duties, the Queen was a mother and had a family. I am personally saddened for them, and wish them well as they continue their journeys without her.

Take care,
Stephan 

We are celebrating What Matters Most: Photographs of Black Life with a talk and a book launch September 9, 2022

What Matters Most: Photographs of Black Life, an impactful exhibition showcasing a collection of images of African-American family life, opened at the AGO August 27. The landmark exhibition features Fade Resistance, a collection acquired by the AGO in 2018, of more than 4,000 Polaroids and other instant prints dating from the 1950s to the early 2000s.  Collected by Toronto Artist and Educator Zun Lee, these lost, discarded or abandoned images of birthdays, graduations and family reunions contain powerful glimpses of African-American life and community. 

On September 9,  poet and essayist Dawn Lundy Martin will be at the AGO for a conversation about What Matters Most with artist and exhibition co-curator Zun Lee, and AGO Curator of Photography and exhibition co-curator Sophie Hackett. They will explore the role of photographs in creating and maintaining a sense of Black identity, memory and loss, and the worlds that these photographs open up for us today. In addition, the event will officially launch the hardcover publication, co-published by the AGO and Delmonico Books/D.A.P.

Can’t make the book launch? The exhibition runs until January 2023.

For this RBC Art Pick, we’re spotlighting nine hand-coloured engravings of flowers, fungi and lichens from the botanical publication, Flora Danica.

On view in the Lynn Stoll Switzer Pathway on Level 1 at the AGO, visitors can see a delightful collection of small, delicate botanical prints documenting the plants of Denmark and its neighbouring countries. For this RBC Art Pick, we’ve selected this group of hand-coloured prints from the Flora Danica, the world’s largest illustrated botanical text. 

Each print in this gallery represents different points of Flora Danica’s publication history, which spanned 122 years, from 1761 to 1883, and involved 11 editors and numerous painters, engravers, printers and distributors. A practical guide on local plant life in Denmark, the book was financially supported by the Danish Crown.

Putting Flora Danica together was not an easy feat. It was a very ambitious project and involved a complex process from start to finish. During its run, many Danish citizens came together to work on the project. An artist would draw the plants onsite and an engraver would produce a copperplate based on the drawing. The plate was then printed, bound with other prints and sold in two ways – as either a luxury hand-coloured book or a less-expensive black-and-white copy. At that time, hand-colouring a botanical illustration was a time-consuming and expensive process. To lower costs, women and children, who were paid much less than men, were primary colourists. 

In case you missed it, Alexa Greist, Associate Curator and R. Fraser Elliott Chair, Prints & Drawings, explores Flora Danica, its inception, influences and background story in a recent edition of Close Looking – watch HERE.

via AGOinsider

Volunteers, I am so deeply saddened and shocked to share that our dear friend Brenda passed away over the weekend. We are keeping her family, particularly her husband of 58 years, John, in our thoughts. Brenda was a dedicated Gallery Guide, with 21 years of service. I will remember her for her thoughtful talks and tours, her tales of travel, incredible sewing skills, and the love she shared for her grandchildren (which we talked so often of in the volunteer lounge). I know she will be so deeply missed by many. Sharing my sympathies with you all and particularly her close-knit Wednesday crew – Holly

Condolences have been sent on behalf of our community of volunteers.

https://www.legacy.com/ca/obituaries/theglobeandmail/name/brenda-mackay-obituary?pid=202727754

Hello everyone,

This week we opened an extraordinary exhibition, What Matters Most: Photographs of Black Life. The show asks us a very important and relatable question. What matters most is often family, friends and meaningful work. This weekend I will be visiting my ageing parents, who matter deeply to me. As we mark Labour Day on Monday, thank you to everyone for the work you do at the AGO.  

A reminder that as part of our DEIA learning program, there will be a special webinar next Thursday, September 8 at 1pm on the topic of Jewish history and culture in Toronto. All are invited to attend. It will be led by Dara Solomon, Executive Director of the Toronto Holocaust Museum. In other words, a museum person talking to museum people about an important topic that is relevant to each of us and the people who live in our city. If you can’t join by Zoom, it will also be live-screened in Seminar Room 1 for those that are working or volunteering on-site.

• The webinar will take place over Zoom on Thursday, September 8, 2022 from 1 pm to 1:50 pm 
• Please click on the following zoom link to join (a reminder: you cannot pre-register for the webinar, simply click on the link below at 1pm on Thursday September 8 to view)
• ZOOM LINK: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85688965473

Take care,

Stephan

Hello Everyone,

This week started off with a torrential downpour on Monday evening. It impacted the lower level of the concourse area close to the Facility Services offices where there was a pretty massive flood. There was A LOT of water coming into the building, and I’d like to thank Protection Services, Plant Operations and Facilities staff who stepped in to help clean up the mess. Their quick action prevented further damage. Thank you for taking on flood duty!

On Wednesday, I travelled to Newmarket along with Jessica and Erin for a special announcement with Mayor John Taylor about a great new partnership. Basically the Town has acquired an incredible property with the intention to convert it into a massive public park, which also includes a 10,000 square foot historic house. In 2025, following a major renovation of the house and green space, the AGO has agreed to loan works from its Indigenous + Canadian Collection for display in Mulock House, as it is known. The AGO has a long history of loaning works from our collection to other galleries and venues throughout Ontario and this is another opportunity to reach audiences particularly in the 905 area, which is growing very quickly with further expansion on the horizon. Here is a link with more information about the property as well as pic of the mayor and I signing our partnership agreement. Thank you to the Communications Team for your help with the announcement.

https://www.newmarket.ca/mulockproperty

Finally – it’s not very often that we get to take a moment and consider the contributions of an employee who has been a part of the AGO for 37 years! That would be Curtis Strilchuk, who is retiring after an incredible tenure at the museum. Curtis began working here in Extension Services (an earlier version of Touring Exhibitions) and later became the AGO’s Registrar of Exhibitions and Loans. Thank you, Curtis!

Take care,

Stephan