STOCKHOLM.- Lap-See Lam and Olle Norås are the recipients of the 2017 Maria Bonnier Dahlin Foundation grant. The foundation was established by Jeanette Bonnier in 1985, in memory of her daughter Maria, who lost her life in a car accident at the age of 20. Since its inception, the foundation has awarded grants to young Swedish artists to support them in their work. Richard Julin, Artistic Director at Accelerator and Ben Loveless, Director at Galerie Nordenhake were guest members of the 2017 jury.
The art of Lap-See Lam tells stories through the use of words, digital media and sculptural installations. She is fascinated by how myths, popular culture and fiction have the potential to control and construct notions of identity and belonging. In her more recent work, Lap-See Lam expresses her interest in rituals surrounding food and language in the Chinese diaspora. How can various traditions and methods be refined and transformed over generations? The video installation Mother’s Tongue (2017), a collaboration with director WingYee Wu, is originally presented as an app, where 3-D film sequences transport the viewer on a journey across time and space. Told from the future, the film introduces three generations of women, who speak of their experience of the Chinese restaurant and how it changes over time. Identity politics and the value of cultural-historical heritage interweave, with the restaurant representing a subjective consciousness where traces of both realism and science fiction can be found. At Bonniers konsthall Mother´s Tongue is presented as an installation accompanied by a series of neon sculptures.
Lap-See Lam (b. 1990) has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm.
Olle Norås works with painting and sculpture, employing techniques and materials such as gouache, aquarelle, wood, aluminium and steel. Embarking on excursions in forests and woodlands, Norås turns to nature to provide him with inspiration for new works. His paper pieces are both abstract and detailed. Using a small brush, Olle Norås crafts forth geographic tales, where landscapes and places appear as pieces of reality or imagination. He often allows the paper to bleed, and the wet watercolours spread and run across the paper. The artist is as interested in the Nordic mythology of forest spirits as he is in the actual threats facing forestland today. The titles themselves are reminiscent of nature, such as the gouache painting Stora fåglar flyger åt fel håll (Large Birds Flying in the Wrong Direction) (2016), where colourful wings extend from a black body. The installation Klockorna (Bells) (2014), consists of three aluminium bells, which hang from the roof by thick ropes. The dull ringing creates an ambient sound, with the artist drawing inspiration from universal traditions of thoughts, such as Tibetan Buddhism.
With a background as a blacksmith, Olle Norås (b. 1982) received a degree from the Academy of Design and Crafts, HDK Steneby. 2013-2015 he spent at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm with project studies.
