In Episode #30 Yam Lau talks to Marx about his views on what is to be an artist. He also shared the incredible story of getting to meet his biological father during his 40s, this story involves a very enthusiastic group of young artists in china and the secret Chinese police!
Yam Lau is a Toronto based artist, professor and community organizer. He was born in Hong Kong and moved to Canada when he was 15 years old. He completed his MFA at the university of Alberta in 1997 and then moved to Toronto where he has been working and living since then. He is represented by Christie contemporary in Toronto
As an artist, Yam explores new expressions and qualities of space, time and the image through the application of painting, computer-animation and digital video. In this conversation he talks about the concept of trying to make the world lighter with his art, this comes through in his work as the space being one of the major characters in his pieces.
Yam teaches at York University just north of Toronto in the department of visual art and art history, throughout this conversation we talk about his reading on how the relationship between students and art degrees have evolved and become more “professionalized”
Finally Yam is also a community organizer, he leads an ongoing art space hosted in his home, he invites artists to create an exhibition responding to his house architecture and he sees this project as an empowering activity for himself and his artists friends given that it lays outside of any commercial endeavour. Another of his projects in collaboration with artist Michal Yuan was called Donkey Institute of Contemporary Arts, this project was realized in Beijing China around and the premise of adapt to the convention of the street peddler who meanders through Beijing neighbourhoods with a donkey selling products. In this case the donkey was dragging a cart with an retrofitted series of wooden modules or boxes that served as a mobile display in which the texts, works and videos displayed, were accessible to passers-by.
Thanks for listening!
