Study for Mirror Work: You're an Asshole; I'm an Asshole

Artist/Creator: Ken Lum (Artist)
Date: 2000
ID #: BG3789

Physical Description

Medium: mirror, epoxy-based ink
Support: –
Dimensions: 200 cm 200 cm (Object)
Round)
Object Description: Study for Mirror Work is from an early stage in Ken Lum’s work with mirrors. He undertook Photo-Mirrors in the late 1990s in which mirrors with family snapshots are tucked into the frames. Mirror Maze with 12 Signs of Depression (2002) is a large-scale mirror pavilion, etched with text pulled from the list of possible symptoms associated with clinical depression, for instance, “Life is not worth living” and “I feel alone in the world.” In Mirror Texts (2003), wall-hung rectangular mirrors bear paired phrases – “I must be losing my mind” / “Am I really losing my mind?” or “What the hell were you thinking?” / “What the hell did you do that for?” Like these other works, Study for Mirror Work: You're an Asshole; I'm an Asshole destabilizes the viewer’s position through the encounter with the reflective surface and aggressive texts.

History

Collection: Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery Permanent Collection
Credit Line: Gift of the artist, 2010
Related Exhibitions: Faces: Works From The Permanent Collection
Start Somewhere Else: Works from the Collection

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