Yan Lam Shi
About
Yan Lam Shi is an artist from Hong Kong, China. She is known for her outstanding film shooting technique, to capture the sentiments of individuals in a manner that is exceedingly delicate. She has a talent for capturing the fleeting emotive moments that resonate with a wide range of viewers. Like a silent sonnet, Shi’s work encourages the audience to investigate the intricacies of emotions.
In her series ‘Don’t Leave Me In Echo’, she metaphorically conveys the impact of her family of origin on her perspective on love and delves into the evolution of values, including success, rationality, speed, efficiency, and competition, as promoted by capitalism.
When the values advocated by capitalism such as success, rationality, speed, efficiency, and competition are transferred to intimate relationships, the emotions and love life of people are therefore commodified. Just as traditional capitalism focuses on work efficiency and capital accumulation, love is also used by people as a tool to enhance self-worth or maximise capital. The feelings of alienation and avoidance of communication among lovers make us question if we are still able to stay true to ourselves and find a balance between rationality and sensibility.
As Erich Fromm pointed out in the book “The Art of Loving”, ‘ The mature response to the problem of existence is love’.
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