Local artist Benson Lam Iam Sang is holding an exhibition sponsored by the Centre for Creative Industries at the Macau Cultural Centre (CCM) complex, entitled “Geometric and Tetrahedron in paper engineering”, until Saturday next week.
The exhibition brochure issued by the organiser, states that in geometry a tetrahedron, also known as a triangular pyramid, is a polyhedron composed of four triangular faces, six straight edges and four vortex corners.
The Macau Post Daily spoke to Lam at the opening ceremony on Saturday where he explained the different types of paper he used in his creations and the various degrees of difficulty entailed in each type.
Lam said that “with origami one piece of paper is used for the whole design, whereas with paper engineering it is many pieces of paper fused together.”
The artwork that Lam has on display are calendars with butterflies and/or roses, “for spring and Valentine’s Day.” Portuguese and Chinese style lions, Macau landmarks, a map of Portugal with photos of Lisbon as well as a photograph that has been made to look like an oil painting. Not forgetting the rabbit as you enter the exhibition space to remind you of the up-and-coming Chinese New Year, which falls on January 22.
Lam said, “I have used pearl paper that has a shiny surface, wool-coating paper which is very soft and metal-coated pater which is very hard. The pearl paper is a bit more difficult to work with than normal paper, which is 110 to160 grammes, whereas the pearl paper is 200 to 250 grammes. The wool-coating paper is very difficult to work with as it is very soft so you have to be very careful. The metal-coating paper is very hard and difficult to fold as it needs holding in shape.”
Lam went on to say, “The map of Portugal is made with pearl paper and the photos I took during my time there. The River Rose which has a photo made to look like an oil painting is made of wool-coating paper and the Desert Rose which has a photo of Taklamakan Desert in southwestern Xinjiang province, is made with metal-coating paper.”
When asked where he gets the paper with such colourful designs, Lam said that “the colouring is from a software which I use to show the texture of the work.”
According to the exhibition brochure, Lam was born in Macau and has studied and worked in Barcelona, mainland China, Hong Kong, Milan and New York. He closely cooperates with European architecture studios engaged in visual merchandising, furnishing design, 3D paper modelling and training.
Lam is also the author of three visual merchandising display books published in mainland China, Europe and Japan, and he has set up two productions studios, one in Malaysia and the other in Thailand producing pre-cut kit materials and training local handicraft teachers.
Photos: Lesley Wells
