KUNO

Art Future/ Future Signs

Florence So-Yue Lam
(MA Fine Art, Iceland Academy of the Arts)


(1) Brief descriptions of submitted work

Water on Mirror under Sun (2015) is a durational installation piece that happens and develops only when
there the sun is out. It was first realized in Reykjavik, Iceland, know for having only sunlight for half a year, but
with excessive natural phenomenon like gigantic rainbows and aurora. The installation is placed on the edge of
the sunrays from the window with a small rainbow generated by water sprayed by audiences from above.
Audiences are required to sit or kneel down close to the installation to be able to view the rainbow. I attempt
to break boundaries of art, artist and audiences by combining all into one body, generating and
maintaining each other at the same time. I touch on elements of new experiences of art, performance,
audience participation and sensory perception, and with influences from the practical uses and effects of
therapy, stage magic, neuropsychology and child psychology.

Inspired by the two common phenomenon in the early developmental stages in children, Magic Thinking and
Animistic Thinking, simple materials common to general public is used, something that audiences thought they
already have a knowledge of their mechanisms, to pick out and amplify their special quality creating a sense of
surprise, the trigger of wonder, as if the object is engaging to the audience to create an illusion of liveliness. I
strive to recall my audiences' feeling of pure wonder by bringing in front of their eyes an object that seems
physically impossible without life, just as children believed that there were spirits inhabited in the flowing water
and sizzling leaves. This is a collective memory for all people regardless of time, space and background, and is
driven by the natural human instinct of curiosity.



(2) Visual representation

(3) Technical implementation

Installation needs to be placed next to a window where the light would cast in as a diagonal.
The position of the objects are shifted and rearranged constantly according to the shape of the light cast.