“Table Read” w/ Ken Lum

Join Ulises: Commodities #2 artist Ken Lum as he hosts a “table reading” of his feature-length script, The Expulsion. This performative reading, assisted by a group of actors and performers, will be followed by a conversation between Lum and Peter X Feng, Associate Professor of English at the University of Delaware, author of Identities in Motion: Asian American Film and Video (2002), and host of the Turner Classic Movies series Race and Hollywood: Asian Images in Film (2009).

The Expulsion explores the Chinese immigrant experience in America during the post-slavery era, focusing on their struggles with indentured labor. The screenplay is set in 1885 in Tacoma, Washington Territory, and is inspired by actual events. This period was characterized by intense anti-Chinese sentiments, particularly among white unionized workers. Instead of recognizing potential allies in the Chinese community who were severely exploited, these workers viewed them as a threat due to the availability of low-cost Chinese labor.

The screenplay portrays the unique setting of Tacoma's waterfront Chinatown, which was ingeniously built on stilts over marshy areas beyond the city's jurisdiction. It follows the community's journey as they confront the looming expulsion date set by the Mayor of Tacoma, who demanded the removal of all Chinese residents—a significant yet under-regarded event in American history.

Image: Chinese gold miners working alongside white miners at Auburn Ravine in central California,1852.

This program will coincide with the launch of Lum’s newest monograph published by Steidl.

Ken Lum (2004)

Published by Steidl. Text by Camille Georgeson-Usher, Alex Alberro.

Shaped by a keen sense of humanity and a wide knowledge of history and literature, Canadian artist Ken Lum (born 1956) is a visionary who has consistently challenged societal norms, the ruling classes, religious suppression and racism, among other horrors that we continue to inflict on each other. His influential work, with its focus on cross-cultural dialogue and the complexities of the modern world, resonates globally—be it through painting, sculpture, photography or public art projects that engage with individual and collective identity in the context of historical trauma and the complications of memory. This publication presents a sweep of Lum’s photographic series, at once descriptive and disruptive, personal and political, including Portrait/Logos (1984–86), Portrait/Repeated Text Works (1993 to present) and Image Mirrors (2021); as well as his work with Monument Lab, a public art project he cofounded with urban geographer Paul Farber.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Ulises, 1525 North American Street, Philadelphia, United States