iVienna Secession (Secession)Innere Stadt
Lap-See Lam's new glass sculptures, sound and spatial objects on diaspora and family history, with bamboo-like glass forms and a soundscape tied to Hong Kong.
You walk into the Secession's foyer and a stalk of glass bamboo fills the middle of the room, as if driven through the building. Downstairs, in the gallery under the entrance, a chandelier shaped like roots hangs from the ceiling and glass mandarins lie in the corners.
The title is an address in Hong Kong. Lam, born in Stockholm to a Hong Kong family, scanned the bamboo scaffolding on that street, where her grandmother once sold fruit. The new works, hand-blown at Cirva in Marseille, rework those scaffolds in glass on polished mirrors; one wall piece joins real bamboo to glass. A steady hum plays from a repurposed air-conditioning unit. With the Naschmarkt next door, these are the only mandarins nearby nobody will offer you a taste of.
It takes two spaces, the foyer and one basement gallery, so it fits around the Beethoven Frieze. Admission is €13 (students under 26 €7.50, under-12s free) and covers every current show; the next free first Wednesday is 4 November.
The glass bamboo in the foyer
A large glass sculpture shaped like a bamboo stalk takes the centre of the foyer and looks as if it grows through the whole building.
The root chandelier
In the basement gallery right below the entrance, a glass chandelier shaped like bamboo roots hangs from the ceiling and lights the room.
The glass mandarins
Look in the corners of the basement gallery for mandarins made of glass, a nod to the grandmother who sold fruit on Wing Lok Street.
Scaffolding on mirrors
Glass versions of Hong Kong's bamboo scaffolding, isolated and reworked, stand on polished mirrored surfaces that throw the room back at you.
The humming air conditioner
An ordinary facade air-conditioning unit has been repurposed to play a continuous hum composed by Marlena Salonen and Linus Hillborg, audible throughout the show.
Children under 12 get in free.