Going beyond the images to an artist's soul

FOR almost 10 years, Singaporeans knew Jason Lim for his organic ceramic creations, but didn't know the "hidden" side of an artist experimenting with performance art - due to the performance art ban in 1994.

That was around the same time he graduated in 1992 and started working with both clay and his own body. His performance art could finally be recognised openly only after the ban was lifted in 2003.

Now, a photo-documentary of his performance art will reveal that journey in a unique exhibition at Gajah Gallery. The focus is not on 3D objects, or even in its 2D form; but a lot more esoteric than simple art-photographic images that we're used to seeing.

"It's an investigation into fine art photography and documentation photography," explains Lim, who will be putting on a performance art piece during the exhibition, besides giving a talk on his practice.

The photographic images will date back to the early 1990s, when Lim started experimenting with performance art, just before the ban came into effect. "I'd come back from London in 1992, and was just finding my place in the Singapore cultural scene when artists like Tang Da Wu, Vincent Leong and Amanda Heng were doing a lot of performance art. It interested me, because of the way it directly puts a message across, and I started trying it myself," he recalls.

The ban came soon after, but Lim was able to continue experimenting with ideas and creating performances within the "sanctuary" of LaSalle School of the Arts, where he was teaching. "In the early days, the performances I did were social and political commentaries about what happened in Singapore and the institutionalisation of art practices," he says.

Though unseen here, there was no shortage of invitations for Lim to perform overseas. And that he did, with works such as Foreign Talent which was a sort of social commentary on expatriates being deemed superior to the locals.

After a few years of this "protest" performance art though, Lim realised that it was pointless for him to be "complaining" outside of Singapore. "And ironically, I performed Foreign Talent for the last time in 2004, in Singapore, after the ban was lifted," he shares.

From there, Lim went on to develop other series, such as Last Drop - which came out of a residency in Greenland in 2002, and following that, Duet, where he selects one material to work with exclusively.

There will be a historical timeline of Lim's works since 1994 in the exhibition and another segment will document performance, with a focus on fine art photography.

Tempus Fegit (Time Flies) traces 20 years of work with a total of 33 photographs taken by different photographers - some in triptych and some in a set of 12. The major body of works are by Daniela Beltrani, who also curated the show and is herself a performance artist who is presently developing a collaborative piece with Lim.

As for how performance art intersects with his ceramic art, Lim notes that they were similar but yet different.. "They straddle two extreme ends: one is about being ephemeral while the other is object-oriented," he says. "But they're both process-based."

Performance art might be performed for the moment and lingers on only in the memories of its maker and viewers, while the ceramic objects are kept. But there is that process of working in a studio, to generate the object; a relic from a process.

The two art practices have met though, in Still/Life where Lim stacked unfired clay objects in a vitrine and slowly put water through the vitrine until the clay objects began to dissolve.

Of late, Lim has done longer works of two hours and longer. He has worked with candles in the past, balancing them on his fingernails so that his hands become candelabras; and for the opening of this exhibition, Lim will work with paper. The self-taught performance artist has also established the Future of Imagination, a performance arts festival with workshops and performances. The ninth edition will be held in September.

"In Singapore, while the ban has been lifted, performance arts still needs licences, but communication has been good, and the authorities are more relaxed these days," he adds. Given that performance art is ephemeral in nature, the genre has surprisingly been quite resilient in Singapore, and now, visibly so.

Tempus Fugit (Time Flies) by Jason Lim runs from until Sep 5 at Gajah Gallery, 140 Hill Street, Old Hill Street Police Station, #01-08. There will be an artist talk and curator's tour tomorrow from 2.30-4pm at the gallery. For enquiries call 6737-4202