Lap-See Lam / Outi Pieski 

On February 9, Bonniers Konsthall opens two parallel solo shows: Dreamers’ Quay, Dreamers’ Key by Lap-See Lam and Rematriation of a Ládjogahpir—Return to Máttaráhkká by Outi Pieski.

Lap-See Lam
The exhibition Dreamers’ Quay, Dreamers’ Key is composed like an all-encompassing installation where shadow play, sculptures and music take visitors on a journey through time, space and dreams. This is the artist Lap-See Lam’s most comprehensive solo exhibition to date and explores the narrative of the Cantonese diaspora in Sweden.

For this exhibition, Lam has collaborated innovatively with industrial technology companies. She has produced a unique 3D scan of the Chinese Pavilion at Drottningholm Palace Park in Stockholm and performed a broad study with sinologists and curators at the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, which has lent one object from its collection to the exhibition.

In her new work Dreamers’ Quay (2022), visitors accompany the teenager A’Yan through a time portal. A large-scale shadow play takes us from the 1970s Chinese restaurant back to the 18th century and an era characterised by Chinoiserie and the early relations between Canton and Sweden. The shadow play is Lam’s take on an ancient form of visual storytelling, to which she has added new technology such as advanced projection mapping on a surface that creates an optical illusion. Lam is fascinated by the shadow play and its history; how it came to Europe from China in the mid-18th century with returning merchants, as its French name, ombres chinoises (Chinese shadows) indicates. This work is the final piece in a trilogy that includes Phantom Banquet (2019–2021) and Mother’s Tongue (in collaboration with Wingyee Wu, 2018). All three parts relate to and are set in and around the Chinese restaurant, in an exploration of historical notions of China.

In connection with the exhibition, Bonniers Konsthall and Lenz Press have jointly published the first book on Lap-See Lam’s art, a richly-illustrated presentation of recent and earlier works, with essays by Mara Lee Gerdén, Svante Helmbaek Tirén, Xiaoyu Weng and Stephanie Cristello.

Outi Pieski
The Finnish-Sami artist Outi Pieski has been acknowledged for her works that converse tenderly with Sami culture and identity. In paintings and large-scale installations, she explores themes of Sami history and future, indigenous people’s rights and sustainable development. Pieski’s works have close ties with Nordic nature, and she sees art as a tool for relating to, and recovering from, the forced assimilation of the Sami people.

In several of her works, Pieski references the Sami craft of duodji, with materials such as wood, silver, and textiles. Duodji was marginalised in the wake of colonisation, but the tradition still has a strong hold: “Duodji is a collective way of making. It is our connection to each other, to past and future generations, and to nature. For me, duodji is radical softness dealing with vulnerability, sincerity, sensibility and communality.”

The exhibition at Bonniers Konsthall is based on the traditional Sami horn headgear, ládjogahpir, which Pieski is relating to the history of Sami women. Her installations are often based on a collective practice involving collaborations with other artists, researchers, and activists. Paintings, photographs and graphic elements in the exhibition builds on an extensive study of the object, carried out by Outi Pieski and researcher Eeva-Kristiina Nylander. The story highlighted by the headgear involves a colonialist metamorphosis. The headgear was banned by the colonialists and forced to change its shape, a parallel to the forced transformation of society into a more patriarchal culture that reduced women’s status. Today, the ládjogahpir symbolises the fight for Sami women’s emancipation from colonial and patriarchal inequality.

Outi Pieski’s exhibition is a co-production by Bonniers Konsthall and the 13th Gwangju Biennale. With support from Frame Contemporary Art Finland.

For press inquiries please contact: Kajsa Pontén, T +46 76 228 06 82 / kajsa.ponten@bonnierskonsthall.se

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