Sharon Lam

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NANNY CAM INTERVIEW #2 Sharon Lam

Sharon has 3 very little videos showing in Nanny Cam. they are all great.

you sent us a video of sea monkeys with a nice romantic song playing in the background? why? im not mad but why

ah yes these are the things one does after living alone for a while..I think I was just having a nice time watching my sea monkeys when that song came on shuffle and though 'aw this is cute', and so recorded it to try and capture the cuteness. my seamonkeys all died shortly after that, so I'm glad I have some videos of their brief life.

you also sent us a video of u drawing a man with a romantic song playing in the background? who is he? is he your boyfriend?

ahahaha the man in question who I was trying to draw was matt damon! so yes he is my boyfriend. I was drawing him for my "matt warming" party I was having as I had already had a flat warming (I told each guest to BYO Matt) (not everyone got into this, cited it was 'weird', so only got a disappointing 4 Matts on the night). also this is making me realise my phone must be at least half filled with croony luv songs!!

where did you film the video of u touching plants and making them hide? I love it

I filmed this at a flower market in hong kong, on the aptly named Flower Market Road! I remember I was with my mum and we were looking for an orchid for my paternal grandmother.

why do you film things? what makes u film things rather than do anything else to them like draw or photograph?

the drawing and the sea monkeys - I filmed I think because when you live alone, you often feel (or at least I do) like that proverbial tree, if noone else is around watching you live and just being, it can feel like it hasn't happened, doesn't "count", no witnesses to validate that situation. so filming little moments, whether or not they get shown to anyone else other than myself, is an easy way to remember that these moments did happen. and I suppose video is the most convincing way to remember! you get the movement, the sounds, the light. I tried to photograph the sea monkeys but they were too small, you needed their movement to see them.

What are you studying?

I just finished architecture school, and now I am at writing school!

do u see these 3 nanny cam videos as a part of your artistic practice or outside of it?

I think they are indirectly a part of it. Whether with architecture or creative writing, I try to tell a story and my stories all end up being about little things. There is something very nice in focusing on everyday minutiae, and to recognise the impact that all these little things have. So things like sea monkeys and matt damon and thigmonastic plants, they are all beautiful and significant!

how does education make you feel?

It makes me feel both gross and happy. Gross because of its hierarchy and bureaucracy and $$feez$$ and the prerequisite privileges you need to be able to go to university in NZ. Happy because this ~education~ is what my parents immigrated/worked their butts off for, so appreciation levels are like level 10000, and I really do enjoy feeling that rare feeling of ~ooooh, growth in knowledge~.

Are you still doing bee things? (we met sharon for an art date last year when she was travelling around europe and she was told us about her architectural studies and how bees can help cities survive)

ahaha not tangibly since handing in my thesis! but the messages and lessons I learnt from the bees will forever be found in every move I make.

What’s New Zealand like?

does it support its creative population?

New Zealand is small! So small and faraway from everyone else! Basically that and colonialism sums up why everything here is the way it is.

It is somewhat supportive? Financially, there are a lot of grants that you can apply for and from what I've heard it's a relatively good process, like if they reject you you can ask why and they'll give you a detailed explanation of things you can change and encourage you to reapply.

I think what's most non-supportive about the creative circles is the exclusivity and single-story telling/homogeneity of it. Visual arts for example in Wellington (and this is the same for the other "big" cities), there is one main art gallery (like a fetus moma), and then a couple of small independent ones. The fetus moma is the most accessible to the public - it's free, has a lot of events etc, but you're never gonna see emerging artists in there, and the exhibitions stay running for at least half a year so there's not a lot of new stuff to see very often.

The small ones you'll see heaps of emerging artists with a faster turnaround, but they are soooooo cliquey and so very scary to go in to when you're not part of that crowd. It's always the same couple of names that float around them, and the few openings I've been to, it feels like everyone is there to be seen, and not at all welcoming/warm/inspired. So I'd say it's not very supportive for outside people who are not already in the circle or know people who are! That being said, there's some great stuff going on like FAFSWAG and Wayne Youle's work.

what do you want your life to look like?

Like an interracial tom hanks/meg ryan movie

THANK YOU SHARON - here is her beautiful website