School of Architecture, Building & Design(SABD) Student Society

Pearl Lam!


I saw a page about Pearl Lam in HOME JOURNAL 2009 issue earlier today and i was totally WOW-ED! ! She has some REALLY wacky stuff..like in those pictures below! oooh...crazily in love with her sense of taste and choice of arrangement of furnitures/ decorations which i think is VERY COOL!!! Something eye-catching, attention grabbing, refreshing, contemporary, a little bit of everything..totally over the top...maximalism too?!

The photos are of her flat in Shanghai, a 9,700 square foot loft, called "HOME"
Born in Hong Kong and educated in the UK, Pearl fell in love with Shanghai Deco when she had to move there for work and is now blending western and eastern ideas together. She's a pioneer in the area of the newly emerging Chinese art market as well. There are many pieces in her flat that she promotes in her gallery in Shanghai called Contrasts.




She had this 52 foot table designed herself and it seats up to 66 guests. She wanted it made in sections to shrink and expand as she needed, but she forgot to take into account the weight of the glass and so having it in sections was not feasible. I love the cutouts in her ceiling!!


"What is Chinese contemporary art?" "I like integration and I like mixture. I don't like a total look. I don't like the minimalist. I like the "Pearl" look"

Like her decorating tastes, Lam is a woman of contradictions. You could say she is the perfect embodiment of the many paradoxes of a newly emerging Chinese culture.
She steps out to the best parties in the latest fashions, but her socialite lifestyle belies a strong intellectual streak and commitment to Chinese art.

Which is why when she founded her first art gallery in 1992, "Contrasts."
"I am very eclectic and I like differences, and differences for me [are] very important"
She extended her personal outlook into the gallery and its overarching themes are the relationship between art, architecture and design, and celebrating difference.

Antiques and collected art works of all sorts filled, including pieces by Zhang Huan and Shao Fan, and all the furniture pieces were unique. There were splendid pendent lamps adorned with peacock feathers, thick glass tea table with rock fault veins; even the cream-colored porcelain tea cups the steward brought there had spectacular shapes too.



Only 2 of this sofa were made.! very innovative in material wise!

This is beautiful...She had a dinner party where she had all the servers fit the plates between the fingers of these scultpures. WOWWW! i wonder how..They are all different because they are handmade.!!

Metal Rock Sculpture!! aWESOME!

black is cool......black+holes = SEXAY!! haha!

hypnotizing..I'm dizzy already!!! it sure resembles a lollipop/ a candy store!

But back to the question of what Chinese contemporary art is..

Usually the Chinese approach art in terms of how it fits into the development of their 5,000-year-old tradition. Calligraphy, ink brush and realism are still highly prized. As a result there is a striking difference between the work in local Chinese art auctions and what is found in the international ones.

"They bend themselves to something like conceptualism when we have no conceptualism"
"I hope the west would give some time to understanding what is our sensibility. Why we would not have conceptualism, why we are still appreciating realism"
"It is about reinvention of tradition, creating a synthesis using western expression, western media but behind that is all about Chinese traditional art philosophy," said Lam.

links : http://new.artzinechina.com/display_vol_aid588_en.html

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/house-home-roundup/nyt-pearl-lams-shanghai-loft-house-home-roundup-122007-039064

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article3861349.ece


yours truly ~ marie