Black & White Ideas

Ken Lum Example

1.       Describe the piece.

On the left, there is a woman smiling in her workplace and on the right there is a bold text saying ‘MELLY SHUM HATES HER JOB’. Since the ‘HATES’ word is emphasized with vivid colour and spiky outline, the word is overlapping with the smile of the woman when one looks at the piece.

2.       What do you think Ken Lum is trying to communicate?

Ken Lum is trying to communicate that people tend to judge or get deceived by the text, and in a larger scale, media controls people to be biased. He depicts the victims caused by media through this piece.

3.       How does it explore, race, culture, language, class and/or identity?

It explores identity of how people judge others by 'few words' and the prejudice of how working class people would hate jobs.

4.       Define conceptualism, how is this work a conceptual piece?

Conceptualism is the theory that universals can be said to exist, but only as concepts in the mind.  This work is a conceptual piece because it explores the concept in the art piece and tries to give message to the world by this work.

JR Photo

1. I chose this picture because the torn paper creates unique negative space that gives characters to the image.
2. This is the image after it has been posted for 2 years in Phnom Penh. The organic and tonned background suits with the image of the women.
3. I think the images should be displayed with cut off backgrounds with close-ups of students and staffs in LFAS. Also, we should consider about how the image would be after years have passed and think about all the agings that might give differnt mood to the image.
4. Images should be displayed where nature (rain, wind, etc) or people can naturally/purposely tear the images apart so that as time pass by, the images would be part of the building and the surroundings.
5. The participation of not only the LFAS students and staffs, but nature and random people would show "who we are" and "why arts matter".