Ken Lum’s newest public work is part of Vancouver’s “Mapping and Marking” section of the city’s Olympic and Paralympic Art Program. Unlike virtually any of the other public art projects, the Mapping and Marking program is unique because the ideas for works originate with artists rather than any officials or administrators. Lum, who was born and raised in East Vancouver recalls seeing the slogan “EAST VAN” written in the shape of a cruciform, often with RULES scrawled beneath it on walls, windows and other surfaces throughout his childhood. “I wouldn’t classify it as graffiti but it is the kind of signifier you’d see appear sporadically on sidewalks in chalk or behind grocery stores. It’s never been formalized or recognized so I thought that was interesting.”
East Van, Vancouver, BC
In the linguistic cultural lexicon of East Vancouver, “East Van Rules” is among the most enduring and iconic messages. Artist Ken Lum was happy to describe his interpretation of the phrase which is the subject of his “Monument for East Vancouver’. “It had a kind of double entendre attached to it,” he says of the “East Van rules” slogan. “On the one hand, it seems defiant – like, ‘You play by our rules when you come to East Van.’ But in fact, it’s the west side that really rules, in terms of power and money and influence.”
Lum’s piece is a 57-foot LED sculpture bearing the words EAST and VAN, written in the same cruciform as the original tag. It is situated on a ridge overlooking the False Creek flats. When funds for Olympic art became available, Lum jumped at the chance to turn this signifier into a sculpture. He says that the creation of the artwork is an act of “critical history”, identifying an issue in the sociopolitical present and reflecting critically on it. No one seems to know the origin of the EAST VAN tag, but residents have said that they remember seeing it around the neighborhood as early as the 1940s. Lum spent his childhood in East Vancouver and is quick to make it clear that though he has drawn on the experience for much of his work, he is far from romanticizing the hardship of growing up in an economically depressed community with immigrant parents. Part of his experience of East Van was being surrounded on all sides by religious imagery. Though his mother was a Buddhist and his father did not practice any religion, the image of the cross was regularly present. Though Lum himself doesn’t identify as a Christian he feels that the imagery is related to the message EAST VAN. “It’s a crucifix, that’s what it is” –- a highly charged symbol. “Christ suffered on the cross. East Van suffers on the cross. The point is: Someone is suffering. And immigrants suffer more than most.”
Lum is one of Vancouver’s most celebrated artists with work in Vienna and the Netherlands. This is his first piece to be erected in his home neighborhood, however, and one of the first pieces of public art to be erected in the neighborhood at all. Lum like many other area artists and city officials feel that East Vancouver, generally speaking gets the short end of the stick when it comes to public art and public funding. His piece will hopefully help to turn the tide and to direct some attention to the area. It’s a bold, iconic image and there is no doubt that it will serve as a point of pride for East Vancouver residents, and a powerful expression of the spirit of the neighborhood.
[...] own ideas for public art pieces in the neighborhood of their choice. Among these was Ken Lum’s “Monument for East Vancouver” and Anna Ruth’s “Sensory Maps of the City of Vancouver”, a series of drawings which describe [...]