Sandy Lam willing to go the extra mile for the sake of fine art

By all accounts, singer Sandy Lam Yik-lin is the consummate professional. And after her recent collaboration with five other local artists to produce multimedia exhibition Canto 6, it's clear that the veteran Canto-pop star is willing to indulge for the sake of art.

At the unveiling of the exhibition, at Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong on Wednesday, Lam and fellow artists, including Hiram To, Julian Lee, Bruce Yu and the Harper's Bazaar team, toasted each other for the months of hard work it took to bring the fine arts show to fruition.

'We've dressed her up, dressed her down, put her on a trampoline and submerged her underwater,' To, who photographed Lam in pyjamas in a Hitchcock-esque setting, said. 'I really have to thank Sandy for letting us put her through such gruelling paces.'

'The water was freezing and the dress was twisting around my legs underwater, which was a little scary,' Lam said of the Harper's Bazaar shoot. 'It was tough, but fun, and the shots we got were great.'

Lam's own audiovisual piece is a meditation on love, which she titled Damage. The singer recorded herself chanting, 'I love you', then layered video clips of her in various states of elation and distress, make-up smeared. 'The idea was to explore the extremes we experience around love, not just the sweetness, hope and excitement, but also the fear, anger, frustration and disappointment,' Lam said.

'We all pursue love, and are to an extent damaged by the failed attempts; it's the whole experience of it that makes us complete as human beings.'