Ken Lum’s Shangri-La Installation Brings Art Outside of the Gallery
Vancouver artist Ken Lum has built scale-model cabins at the base of the Shangri-La building, recreating the shacks erected on the Maplewood mudflats. The exhibit, From Shangri-La to Shangri-La, is part of the Vancouver Art Gallery Offsite installation and runs until Sept. 6, 2010.
As the VAG website notes: “Scale models of these structures appear to float over the surface of a reflecting pond, creating a marked juxtaposition between their makeshift construction and the surrounding architecture, while evoking the utopian character of the mudflat community in the seemingly inexorable advance of urban development.”
It is fitting, then, that this installation lies at the foot of Vancouver’s giant. It is a jarring placement, one that allows you to really view the shacks; just as black ink stands out most on white paper, these seemingly haphazard stilted shacks are most effectively viewed against the contradiction of a carefully constructed modern skyscraper.
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