Hutong House, computer-generated animation, digital video, 4 min 26 sec, 2009

Hutong House is a type of traditional vernacular architecture that is fast disappearing in China. The work can be characterised as a ‘creative documentary of the subject through digital video and 3-D imaging software. As a ‘documentary’, the work reconstitutes the architectural layout and its associated forms of life and quality of space as rendered in virtual space. As a creative project, Hutong House constructs new expressions of space, time and the image. The tentative image(s) of the house and the human activities therein unfold as clusters of inconclusive views and volumes within an indeterminate matrix of spatial temporality.

Yam Lau’s work explores new expressions and qualities of space and image, and traverses diverse media including painting and animation. His most recent works combine video and computer-generated animation to re-create familiar spaces in varied dimensionalities and perspectives. Lau also publishes regularly on art and design and is active in his local art community. Certain aspects of his art practice, such as using his car as an on-going mobile project space, are designed to solicit community participation. Lau has exhibited widely across Canada, United States and Europe and is a recipient of numerous awards from the Arts Councils in Canada. Lau is currently a Professor of Painting at York University, Toronto. In addition to his teaching and research, Lau serves on the board and advisory committee for two public galleries. Born in Hong Kong, Lau lives and works in Toronto and is represented by Leo Kamen Gallery in Toronto, and Yuanfen New Media Art Space, Beijing.

twenty+3 projects Curatorial Approach: Trade City

In the two works presented for Trade City by twenty+3 projects, artists Cheryl Sourkes and Yam Lau explore different manifestations of international trade. In Shipping Forecast: Visibility, a text piece on the windows, Sourkes mines the vocabulary of a Meteorological Office shipping bulletin, while in Hutong House, Lau uses digital animation and video, to explore the fast disappearing traditional Hutong houses of China, victims of global trade’s modernisation.