Born in Stockholm, recent solo exhibitions for the award-winning artist include Bonniers Konsthall in her hometown and Trondheim Kunstmuseum, with Portikus, Frankfurt am Main, and Studio Voltaire in London set to happen next year. Last year, she was shortlisted for the Future Generation Art Prize, and this weekend, the Röhsska museum opens her solo exhibition Raining Dragon Scales.
Growing up in the building where her parents and grandmother were running their Chinese restaurant had an effect on Lam. It made her start to vision the cultural exchanges that took place. What happens to information as it is handed from one generation to another, or one place and another, and how does that relate to design?
– My grandmother, she tells us, opened up Bamboo Restaurant in Stockholm, so when my parents took over the business, the place became a natural part of my childhood. My parents never meant for my siblings or me to take over, it was actually the contrary — they ran the restaurant so that we could fulfil our dreams.
By using digital design techniques, Lam wishes to create a space between East and West and present it through modern technology. The exhibition features four objects from Röhsska’s East Asian department which Lam has 3D scanned, starting with a sculpture featuring a dragon symbol in order to showcase the correlation between China and Europe. Raining Dragon Scales, as the piece is called, has been designed and produced after the 3D scanning of objects, to be shown through a mobile phone, featuring actual dragon scales.
The second object, a Virtual Reality piece named Phantom Banquet, features an installation set in a Chinese restaurant, showcasing Lam’s connection to her heritage. Visitors will also be able to watch a shadow puppet play, Dreamers’ Quay, which features characters in a Swedish Chinese restaurant from the 70s. For the play, Lam has 3D scanned different environments and objects in Sweden such as Chinese palaces, dragon boats, and different Chinese restaurants, that will be shown through a video projector at the museum.
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