Melly Shum Hates Her Job (Chinese version for Shanghai) 1990/2010 《沈梅丽讨厌她的工作》（中文版本，为上海展览创作），1990/2010 年
Inkjet print on canvas billboard 喷墨打印广告
Courtesy of the artist 作品由艺术家提供

Melly Shum Hates Her Job is a much-loved, if perplexing, work of public art, which since October of 1990 has greeted passersby on the Witte de Withstraat – the Rotterdam street from which the art center takes its name. Indeed, the billboard has been around for almost as long as Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art itself. Melly, its slyly smiling protagonist, even has a flickr site devoted to her! Perhaps the fact that Melly Shum has become a household name in Rotterdam testifies to this Dutch city’s ethnic diversity – her features and name easily read as Chinese, but it may be important to keep in mind that the artist behind her image is Canadian. Which country does Melly come from? The question may be posed differently in China, or not asked at all, as Melly Shum could indeed be from Shanghai. Perhaps what comes to the foreground instead is Melly's contradictory relationship to her work, an issue which resonates within several artworks to the exhibition which investigate work conditions in highly industrialized nations.
《沈梅丽讨厌她的工作》这个作品属于公共艺术范围，广受欢迎，又令人有些困惑。这块广告牌自1990年10月起就悬挂在鹿特丹Witte de With大街上吸引路人的注意，而Witte de With当代艺术中心正是以此街命名。实际上，这块广告牌存在的时间几乎和Witte de With当代艺术中心一样长。广告中的主角沈梅丽顽皮地笑着，著名的照片分享网站Flickr上甚至都专门有她的版面！也许沈梅丽——她的相貌，易读的中 文名字——成为鹿特丹传遍大街小巷的名字这一事实证明了这座荷兰城市的族群多样性，不过同样重要的是要知道，隐藏在沈梅丽图像后的是一位加拿大籍的华人艺 术家。沈梅丽是哪国人？这个问题在中国也许会以不同的方式提出，或者根本无人问及，因为沈梅丽可能确实就是上海人。也许最终取而代之凸显出的问题是沈梅丽 与她从事的工作之间的矛盾关系，而这个问题与此次展览中以考察高度工业化国度中工作条件为目的之一的一些作品有着种种关联。

Ken Lum (b. 1956) is a Canadian artist of Chinese decent, who lives in Vancouver. He is well known for works that combine image and text, comedy and critique, private sentiment and public modes of display – forging a complex view of multicultural realities. He has exhibited widely including documenta 11 (2002), the 9th Istanbul Biennial (2007) and the 2008 Gwangju Biennale. He is also a respected teacher, a member of juries worldwide and a co-curator of such milestone exhibitions as Shanghai Modern 1919-1945 (with Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker and Zheng Shengtian) and The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa 1945 to 1994 (with Okwui Enwezor). In 2000, he co-founded (with Zheng Shengtian) the Yishu Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art.
华裔加拿大艺术家Ken Lum（1956年生）现生活于温哥华。他的创作在图像和文本、谐趣与批评、个人观点和公共表现模态之间搭起桥梁，并通过这种形式建立起一种多文化现实的 全面视角，由此广为人熟知。他广泛地参与过各种展览，包括第十一届卡塞尔文献展（2002年）、第九届伊斯坦布尔双年展（2007年）以及2008年韩国 光州双年展。他还是位受人尊敬的老师，国际上数个评委会的成员，并与他人共同策划过一些里程碑式的展览，如《现代上海：1919-1945》（与Jo- Anne Birnie Danzker和郑胜天共同策划）和《短暂的一世纪：非洲1945年至1994年之间的独立和自由运动》（与Okwui Enwesor共同策划）。2000年，他与郑胜天共同创立了《艺术》（Yishu Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art）杂志。