Ken Lum’s works often explores cultural identity through the juxtaposition of coded images and language. “The Midway Plaza” mimics the type of monument sign one might encounter outside a suburban shopping center. The names of each of the Vietnamese-owned shops advertised in the brightly colored, jumble of words and graphics, reflect either place names, events or individuals associated with the Vietnam War. “Phan Thi Kim Phuc Pharmacy,” for example, references Phan Thi Kim Phuc, the young girl who was photographed running naked down a country road after suffering terrible burns from a U.S.-ordered napalm attack on her village.



Lum was inspired by the signage of a Vietnamese-American shopping center near his residence in South Philadelphia. He has said “I kept thinking of this sign representing a kind of community of displaced peoples who have started anew and built a community here in South Philly.”

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