Lim Poh Teck

 

In Progress by Lim Poh Teck. Year: 1992. Medium: Mixed media. Size: 240 x 444 x 200 cm.

 

Students gain insight into Asian art

Compliments to Arts Victoria for this short introduction.


Primary and secondary school students gained a special insight into the contemporary art of Asia when Singaporean visual artist, Lim Poh Teck, took up a three-week residency with the Artists and Environment Designers In Schools (AEDIS) program.

During his stay, Lim Poh Teck was Artist-in-Residence for a week at Hawkesdale College, near Warrnambool, and managed to take in 11 Melbourne metropolitan primary and secondary schools. A major part of Mr Lim's busy schedule was a series of workshops and artist's talks at the National Gallery of Victoria's Education Services.

Mr Lim studied at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore and completed a Master of Arts at the University of New South Wales. His two and three dimensional works reflect his Asian traditions and his experiences of living and travelling in the West. This combination of East and West in his art has inspired him to further explore and interact with other cultures, "to experience each one with more depth".

These visits provided students with a lifetime opportunity to interact with a highly respected international artist, to gain an understanding of his influences, motivations and methods of working.

The AEDIS program is funded by the Department of Education, Employment and Training, and managed by Arts Victoria. Lim Poh Teck's visit was supported under the Memorandum of Understanding between Arts Victoria and the National Arts Council of Singapore.

 

Painting of the Year Winner


The United Overseas Bank is a long-term partner in the development of the arts in Singapore. The Bank initiated the UOB Painting of the Year event in 1981. Since then, this major arts event has grown and matured. Today it is one of the more important visual arts events in Singapore. Our visual arts community looks forward to the competition as a key recognition of artistic achievement and excellence. In addition, the event is probably one of the few established platforms where young talents 18 years old and below are identified. It is therefore an important avenue for encouraging and recognising young emerging artists.

Many of the previous winners have continued to excel in the visual arts. Previous Grand Prize and First Prize winners include accomplished artists such as: Baet Yeok Kuan, Chng Chin Kang, Hong Sek Chern, and Lim Poh Teck.

 

Excerpts from WHATEVER WORKS
by Adeline Koh

This article was published by Happening! and cached by Google, and has been deleted from Happening when the site was shut down.


Forays into contemporary art is growing in Singapore, the scene is constantly stimulated by the efforts of Plastique Kinetic Worms, probably the epitome of the starving earnest contemporary artist group in Singapore. Housed in a little shophouse at 68 Pagoda Street, the group often showcases the work of lesser-known artists, concentrating predominantly in the realm of contemporary art. A brand new exhibition titled "Recent Works" kicked off on June 19, focusing on sculpture and presenting the separate works of three artists: Vincent Leow, Baet Yeok Kuan and Lim Poh Teck.

Each artist worked independently on elaborating his own themes; thus the huge banner head "Recent Works" suggests no mention of needful unity but rather an individual freshness. The works displayed were also imbued with distinctive qualities; each artist easily distinguished from the other in terms of his ideas and expression of them.

Perhaps what is most discernable from the pieces is their stoic reduction of contemporary elements: Lim Poh Teck's use of aeroplane propellers in his pieces are reminiscent of Duchamp and the corresponding spawning of installation art.

Most of Lim Poh Teck's propeller-pieces are placed in the centre of the room in a straight line. One spies a tiny little tricycle which has a propeller for handlebars: dreamily evocative of childhood and little aeroplane hats or beanies; or perhaps ferocious energy propelling the child throughout his life. Optimistic art, to me anyway. Every piece of Lim's art in this exhibition has a propeller on it somewhere: a red kettle-like contraption, for example, and a "Power Chair", a chair complete with propeller. Lim's works invoke memories of childhood superimposed with flashes of ambiguous energy; an idyllic feeling juggles feelings of your belly being tickled as opposed to your guts wrenched outside of you.

The overall exhibition was subdued but pleasing: as Nietzche would have it, an exercise in strict Apollinian form with none of those nasty overpowering Dionysian elements. Those who find some merit in Ancient Etruscan work done in the pre-romantic era should find an affinity with the pieces. An exercise in changing new forms, yes, but not wildly insisting on trammeling past new boundaries which is rather pleasant: too much riffraff screams and yells in haunted canvases can look rather ridiculous sometimes.

As mentioned earlier the collection is more of a showcase of each individual artist's individual expressions. One should go in and not look for explorations of a theme but rather discover each artist's distinctive energy and outlook; a convergence and divergence of the Singaporean artist mindset of sorts. Take a look and see what bothers other Singaporeans' minds so much that they translate it into objets d'art.




Chinese Stories at Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan, September 26 to December 24 2002.

Featured Artist(s): Amanda HENG, XU Bing, CAI Guoqiang, ENG Hwee Chu, TAN Chin Kuan, TANG Da Wu, Wong Hoy Cheong, LIM Poh Teck.

The exhibition features the works of artists who are conscious of their 'Chinese' identity and shared language, belief and history while they live not only in the mainland China and Taiwan, but Southeast Asia and the West. Fukuoka Asian Art Museum 7th and 8th Floors, River Site, Hakata Riverain, 3-1 Shimokawabata-machi, Hakata-ku, Fukuoka-shi, Japan Tel: 092 7718600.