Staying in with ... Ken Lum
Vancouver visual artist and writer is in Philly with family, following the news closely
With galleries locked, concert halls closed and theatres dark, Postmedia has reached out to B.C. artists of all types to find out what they are doing during these trying COVID-19 times.
Answering the isolation questionnaire is internationally renowned visual artist and writer (Everything is Relevant) Ken Lum — he’s the guy behind the East Van cross and the boats on top of the Vancouver Art Gallery.
The Vancouver native is currently living in the Philadelphia area where he is the chair of the department of fine arts at the University of Pennsylvania.
Q Where are you spending most of your time?
A I’m spending most of my time at home. The local township advises against going to local parks, including strolls in forest preserves, citing the risk of encountering infected strangers. My family and I live on a large property — not an estate, by any means, but big enough to kick a ball around and to jog. Inside, we spend a lot of time reading since we have very little electronic distractions. Our home environment is quite monastic.
Q Who is with you?
A My wife Paloma, our nineyear-old son Linus and our four-year-old daughter Linnea.
Q Where are you getting your information?
A I subscribe online to The Washington Post, The New
York Times, Harper’s and The Globe and Mail. I’m basically a news junkie. I will often read The Guardian, South China Evening Post and Haaretz.
Q What is something you are doing that you don’t normally do?
A I’m playing a lot more with my children, which is a blessing in this moment of dread and uncertainty. I’m spending a lot of time giving lectures and seminars online on Zoom and Blue Jeans conferencing. That’s new.
Q What do you have lots of in your cupboards?
A I have a lot of unsalted and raw pistachios, hunza raisins, mulberries, roasted seaweed snacks, Fuji apples, bananas and baked pork rinds.
Q What have you been reading?
A I’ve been reading books by colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania where I teach, if only to be able to say I read their book! I read Political Life in the Wake of the Plantation: Sovereignty, Witnessing, Repair by Deborah Thomas. I’m mostly through A Wall of Our Own: An American History of the Berlin Wall by Paul M. Farber. Simultaneously, I am reading The Chinatown Trunk Mystery: Murder, Miscegenation, and Other Dangerous Encounters in Turnof-the-Century New York City by Mary Ting Yi Lui. The last book relates to a course I am preparing to teach.
Q What have you been watching?
A I often will buy individual
NBA games on nba.com but now that the season is cancelled, I’m not watching much at all except what is linked up on various news sites I subscribe to such as WaPo and N.Y. Times.
Q What are you doing for exercise?
A I admit I hardly do any exercise. I have a bit of rudimentary gym set up in the basement — steps, skipping rope, sit-up bench, padded floor area and a series of armcurl weights. I did 25 minutes yesterday for the first time in a long while and I need to make it a routine.
Q What worries you?
A I’m a born worrier, but not in any obvious sense of how worriers are often imagined to be. I think a lot about different things. I rank my concerns, although the ranking is constantly shifting. I try to figure out the best path to allaying the concern. It sounds nutty to say, but I wrote a movie screenplay thinking it could generate interest and possible income. So far, so good.
Q When this ends what will be different?
A I think this will end but it could take a long while to do so. I hope what will be different is greater appreciation for the planet and how every human is a cousin to every other human to whom we need to love and take care of for our own furtherance.