An art installation displays the words "Floating Sea Palace" on a large, semi-transparent screen. The text is distorted and illuminated against a dark background, creating an eerie and contemplative atmosphere.

Lap-See Lam

Floating Sea Palace

This major exhibition by Lap-See Lam (b. 1990) is the first-ever institutional exhibition of the artist’s work in the UK. The commission developed from Lap-See Lam's presentation for the Nordic Pavilion at the 60th Biennale di Venezia, 2024.

Lam's expansive video installations interpret traditional storytelling forms such as Cantonese opera and shadow plays to grapple with the translation – and mistranslation – of cultural heritage.

In her work to date, Lam has combined digital and analogue processes, much of which derives from 3D scans of typical Chinese restaurants in Sweden, taken before they close. Lam began this process when her parents sold their family restaurant, Bamboo Garden, which had been established by her grandparents on their arrival to Stockholm from Hong Kong in the 1970s. The scanning technology Lam experimented with was imperfect, and the resulting models of the restaurant's interiors behaved unexpectedly, becoming fragmented and glitchy. While certain architectural elements of the often decadent rooms retained recognisable tropes – carved ebony and chairs, golden lanterns and cherry blossom decorations – the images were equally defined by missing information.

Lam’s practice, ranging from film to virtual reality, sculpture, and installation, translates this missing information in a process she describes as ‘generational loss’. Her works trace a line through histories of Chinoiserie, European approximations of Chinese artistic traditions that proliferated in the 18th Century, through to the decor of Chinese restaurants in modern-day Sweden and her own family history of migration.

At Studio Voltaire, Lam’s new film Floating Sea Palace (2024) reinterprets the folklore surrounding Lo Ting, a mythological half-fish and half-man hybrid figure who is believed to be the ancestor of the Hong Kong people. In Lam’s retelling, Lo Ting is split in two, existing across time as Past and Future versions of themselves. Past Lo Ting (Bruno Himbobo) yearns to return to his homeland ‘Fragrant Harbour’, the phonetic translation of Hong Kong (香港 heung gong), while Future Lo Ting (Ivan Cheng) tries to guide and change the course of their shared history. Together, they board a Dragon Ship – itself character personified by the experimental vocalist Sofia Jernberg.

Floating Sea Palace continues a cycle of works by Lam inspired by the real setting of the Floating Restaurant Sea Palace, a three-storey floating Chinese restaurant in the shape of a dragon. Like Lo Ting, the Floating Restaurant Sea Palace has survived many transformations. Commissioned by entrepreneur Johan Wang in the 1990s, the ship sailed from Shanghai, docking at port cities throughout Europe. Facing economic challenges and decay, it was eventually repurposed as a haunted funhouse at Stockholm’s Gröna Lund amusement park, where it was advertised as ‘A ship from the Orient with a thousand-year curse’. Lam filmed much of Floating Sea Palace onboard the real ship, combining this footage with 3D scans and animations. The ship’s palimpsest of spaces, at once restaurant, horror house, vessel and wreck, provide a haunted and often dissonant stage for the artist’s explorations of displacement.

Within the exhibition itself, Lam has collaborated with bamboo sifu Ho Yeung Chan on the large-scale scaffold installation which houses the film. The building technique has traditionally been used to create elaborate temporary structures for Cantonese opera performances. The film’s multi-channel score, composed by Marlena Salonen,

As the Lo Tings travel through Northern seas, the unseen Singing Chef, voiced by Lam’s father Ping-Kwan Lam, relates the story of their metamorphosis. The artist’s world-building narrative evokes the process through which symbols are altered and othered via the spectacle of exoticization, examining the slippery meaning of ‘belonging’ for communities in diaspora. Lam both lays claim to and troubles ideas of cultural inheritance, exploring separation and collective memory across oceans.

Screening times

Floating Sea Palace runs on a continuous loop, starting at the following approximate times:

10 am, 10:26 am, 10:52 am, 11:18 am, 11:44 am, 12:10 pm, 12:36 pm, 1:02 pm, 1:28 pm, 1:54 pm, 2:20 pm, 2:46 pm, 3:12 pm, 3:38 pm 4:04 pm, 4:30 pm [last full showing]

Exhibition Introductions, 30 minutes

Studio Voltaire Assistants lead introductions to the exhibition every Saturday, from 3–3.30 pm. We welcome questions, responses and discussion. Please meet at the gallery entrance. Drop-in, no booking required.

Floating Sea Palace is co-commissioned by Studio Voltaire, The Vega Foundation and The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery. Produced in partnership with Moderna Museet.

This exhibition is commissioned and produced by Studio Voltaire, supported by The Ampersand Foundation, The Embassy of Sweden in London, the Henry Moore Foundation and Galerie Nordenhake Berlin/Stockholm/Mexico City. With kind assistance from Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation. Studio Voltaire’s Programmes are core funded by The Studio Voltaire Council. Studio Voltaire’s Exhibitions programme has received support from Cockayne – The London Community Foundation.

Floating Sea Palace opened at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery in Toronto on 21 September 2024, as part of an exhibition organised and developed in partnership with The Vega Foundation.

Lap-See Lam was born in Stockholm in 1990, where she lives and works. The artist has been invited to create the idea and framework for a Gesamtkunstwerk at the Nordic Countries Pavilion for the 60th Venice Biennial. The artist Kholod Hawash from Finland and the composer Tze Yeung Ho from Norway are working alongside her.
Recent solo exhibitions include Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo NY; Swiss Institute, New York City; Portikus, Frankfurt am Main; and Lidköping Konsthall, Sweden (all 2023); Bonniers Konsthall (2022); Trondheim Kunstmuseum (2021); Moderna Museet Malmö (2018–2019); and Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm (2022, 2018).
Lam was the winner of Dagens Nyheter Culture Prize in 2021 and a recipient of the Maria Bonnier Dahlin Foundation Grant in 2017. In 2021 she was shortlisted for the Future Generation Art Prize, and was nominated for the Ars Fennica Award 2023.
Please note that light levels in the gallery are low.
The film is subtitled and includes loud music and flashing images.
Large font readers, ear defenders, ear plugs, torches and additional seating are available at the front desk.
Read Studio Voltaire's full access information here.
Lap-See Lam, Floating Sea Palace, 2024. Installation view, Studio Voltaire, London, 2024. Co-commissioned by Studio Voltaire, The Vega Foundation and The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery. Produced in partnership with Moderna Museet. Images courtesy the artist, Studio Voltaire, Galerie Nordenhake, Berlin/Stockholm/Mexico City. DoP: Lisabi Fridell. Music: Marlena Salonen & Linus Hillborg. Textile work Kholod Hawash. Photography Andy Keate.
Artist / Director: Lap-See Lam
Cast:
Bruno Hibombo as Past Lo Ting
Ivan Cheng as Future Lo Ting
Ping-Kwan Lam as Singing Chef
Sofia Jernberg as Dragon
Director of Photography: Lisabi Fridell FSF
Technical Director & Animation: Martin Christensen
Original Music & Sound Design: Marlena Salonen, Linus Hillborg
Sound Mix: Linus Hillborg
Lo Ting Character Texts: Ivan Cheng
Dramaturge & Script Consultant: Jesper Strömbäck Eklund
Studio Director: Jun-Hi Wennergren Nordling
Textile Art / Costume: Kholod Hawash
Seamstress / Costume Designer: Suvi Kajas with assistants Linda Kokkonen, Tiina Majabacka, Jenni Räsänen, Hilla Ruuska
Hair & Makeup: Johanna Jarmide Larsson
Camera Operator: Peter Mattsson
Focus Puller: Herman Brolin
Camera Assistant: Filip Ehrenstråhle
Gaffers: Kamil Janowski, Luisa Fanciullacci
Best Girl / Best Boy: Linnea Grahn, Carl Erskine
Technicians: Sofia Bogren, Markus Lingevall
Sound Technicians: Christian Skarin, Giovanni Onorato
FAD: Pontus Wicksell, Rebecka Cutić
Editors: Lap-See Lam, Daniel Ljunggren Lundström (We Are Shook), Fredrik Egerstrand
Online / VFX: Viktor Tegréus (We Are Shook)
Colourists: Nanna Dalunde, Lisabi Fridell
Graphic Design & Altersea Illustration: Thomas Bush
Artist’s Assistant: Felicia Troedsson Friberg
Director’s Assistant: Alva Qi Törnqvist
Production Assistants: Hampus Larsson, Laura Lucchini, Rut Egerstrand Kjellberg, Unn Faleide
Language Interpreters: Angela Aldebs, Maya Abdullah, Tanny Lam
Script Advisors: Axel Winqvist, Lawen Mohtadi
Catering: Charlotte Larsson
Dragon head and tail originally made by artist Lu Guangzheng (1991)
Dragon’s Welders and Guardians: Fredrik Eriksson, Hasse Möller, Zoltan Schnierer
Bamboo Scaffolding (on film set): Ho Yeung Chan with assistants Ho Lim Chan and Marius Engan Johansen
Executive Producers: Studio Lap-See Lam, Luba Kuzovnikova
Creative Producer: Fredrik Egerstrand. Production: Egerstrand&Blund
The artist extends gratitude to curators Asrin Haidari, Julia Paoli, Kate Whiteway, and Nicola Wright, and a special heartfelt thanks to Johan Wang for the opportunity to film aboard Floating Sea Palace
The film was produced with funding from The Swedish Film Institute, film commissioner Axel Petersén, Galerie Nordenhake Berlin/Stockholm/Mexico City, Göteborgs Stad, Region Gävleborg. Sponsored by Elektronmusikstudion EMS, Gröna Lund, Högmarsö Varv, Icebug, Ljud & Bildmedia, Sidenkompaniet.
Floating Sea Palace was developed from the film The Altersea Opera, which was commissioned by Moderna Museet in partnership with The Vega Foundation and supported by Studio Voltaire and The Power Plant. The Altersea Opera was presented as part of the Nordic Pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia (20 April to 24 November, 2024), conceived and conceptualised by Lap-See Lam, and realised in collaboration with composer Tze Yeung Ho and textile artist Kholod Hawash.
Exhibition credits:
Bamboo Scaffold Master: Ho Yeung Chan
Technical Director: Martin Christensen
A/V: ADi Audio Visual

Lap-See Lam

Floating Sea Palace

Lap-See Lam and Rebecca Liu in conversation

Open House 2024