secret identities justin lim secret identities justin lim 4 November – 27 November 2010
[dis] ornamentation
Gina Fairley
I believe that the human race has developed a form of collective schizophrenia in which we are not only the slaves to this imposed thought behaviour, but we are also the police force of it. – David Icke
Gina Fairley is a freelance writer specialising in Southeast Asian contemporary art. She was formerly Exhibition Co-ordinator for the Biennale of Sydney.
The ornamentation or patina of a society is, as Icke suggests, a developed form of schizophrenia where the individual is both colored by, and responsible for, the frame within which they exist. We act out multiple roles – identities – along prescribed paths. Simply we are the product of our society and visa versa. Justin Lim has long questioned this contested territory in his paintings, what he describes as ‘existential ponderations’. His canvases are not so much political in agenda but, rather, well from Lim’s need for affirmation of our existence; a kind of truth seeking exercise that dissects the interwoven platforms of religion, social mores, politics and popular culture. My dictionary confirms Lim’s standpoint: existentialism is the philosophy of shaping one’s ‘self-chosen mode of existence and moral stance with respect to the rest of the world’. It hits it in one. Lim’s new paintings confidently ask, how do we responsibly navigate the belief systems we are born into, or confined within? And, in fact, how malleable are we? It is not surprising then this exhibition is titled secret identities. It is a term that conjures cyber pseudonyms and covert operations, of veiled truths or layered realities. It implies a veneer or surface decoration that plays up perceptions and bolsters disinformation. Lim fleshes out this duality in his suite of 15 paintings of clearly recognizable characters within the Malaysian art scene and what he describes as their ‘manipulated identities’ through the addition of text and motifs. Lim’s composite portraits arrive at a very different portrayal of the person and they seem to scream out at the viewer with a knowing consensus – ‘hey you’re branding me’. It is a bold move of Lim’s and it drives two distinct reactions from the viewer. The first opens us to how we read and, by implication understand the cultural quagmires of this place by exposing bias through sloganistic zeal. Perceptions are massaged into dogma; and dogma blinds critical thought. Take the painting GUILTY [2010], for example, where the semantics of the word and the physical gesture of the sitter, artist Noor Mahnun Mohamed, prescribe our reaction. Dressed in combat khaki’s and a t-shirt with the Southeast Asian tiger beer symbol, she is backdrop by floral decorations and overlaid with stencils of female anatomy. It is a complex image that questions the role and rites of women in this society - but are our thoughts guilt-free? While we stare blatantly into the resigned gesture of Anum in her role as ventriloquist to a recent case in Malaysia, where a Muslim woman was caught consuming alcohol and was sentenced to a caning, she is steadfast, almost smug, catching our eye with knowing. This image is no longer a portrait but a psycho-semantic dialogue. To question the ‘framing’ of Anum reverts our consciousness back to the secret identities it harbors. It is a device Lim uses repeatedly across this exhibition.
The second reaction scanning this suite of portraits takes a more universal position. Simply, Lim challenges notions of correctness and perceptions of beauty. He works against the traditional genre of the portrait rendering his sitters slightly awkward and marring their ‘ideal’ with blemishes, distractions aimed at placating or fooling the onlooker. Most obvious are their ‘constructed’ tattoos and semi-obliteration through sprayed slogans aka the signature of a street artist. It is an irreverent dis-ornamentation. In effect it usurps the individual’s identity with a secret agenda, to the point of irreality. But these paintings are not all heady concepts and identity politics. Tattoos are extremely interesting in a contemporary popular context. While they have long carried a stigma in society, today they are deemed a fashionable adornment. They are an affirmation of one’s sense of themself and yet here that choice is made for them by Lim. There is a tension of definitions. This transexperience deals with memories and belief systems, that is, how we reconfigured the meaning of a motif outside a singular bias. Are our perceptions substantiated? A good example is the painting WE WANT YOU [2010], a portrait of Samsudin Abdul Wahab with the word ‘REPENT’ emblazoned across his chest. The word itself is enmeshed with Christian indoctrination and when paired with the iconography of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, devils and angels, it is a battle ground of religious dogma, one underlined by Samsudin’s somewhat tortured expression and the sprayed slogan ‘we want you’. The same tensions are played out in Lim’s self-portrait THE POWER OF EQUALITY [2010], a kind of hellish boxing match of beliefs sketched out in symbolic tattoos and the word ‘REDEMPTION’. Who is being saved from such ill-fated decline? Despite contemporary readings and popular culture, the tattoo and graffiti tag are still largely territories that offer a visible psychobiography of the person at hand, both participant and voyeur. Scanning around the gallery we are faced with the charged tags: ‘REPENT’, ‘SAVIOR’, ‘RISE ABOVE’, ‘DESTROYER’, ‘LOVE CAN SAVE YOU’, and ‘AMERICAN IDLE’ – they have a certain evangelical ring about them. For Lim the text serves as a decoder to the painting’s message, a ‘what you read is what you get’ philosophy, and counterpoint to the concealment of their layered identities, not unlike propaganda itself. There is something emphatic in their confidence. A good example is ‘POP IS DEAD’. It is so sure we believe it. Or how about the portrait of Fauzul Yusri in ‘I AM A MALAY BOY’. Wearing an Ozzy Osbourne t-shirt, it captures the smashing confluence of popular western trends within the belief structures of Malaysian society, and indeed its implication as a good Muslim. Lim reminds us that one might listen to metal music and pray five times a day - it is a contemporeanity brokered on our own compote of beliefs and is a rich and textured portrait of a place. We are left with the conclusion that we are no longer looking at visages of Anum, Samsudin, Fauzul or the other identifiable artists within this scene. Identity constantly permutates – it is not a static picture - and the speed at which we redefine ourselves [and our belief structures] has spiraled into a dervish in our 21st century. Collective schizophrenia, to return to Icke’s words, describes our fragmentation between difference and homogeneity, between dogma and freedom. Metaphorically, the truth lies between the layers of these paintings – in the disornamentation of Lim’s secret identities.
secret identities
POP IS DEAD acrylic on canvas and mixed media on perspex 71 x 79 cm
SECRET IDENTITIES acrylic on canvas and mixed media on perspex 115 x 175 cm
SAVIOR...COMING SOON acrylic on canvas and mixed media on perspex 115 x 175 cm
DESTROYER...NOW SHOWING acrylic on canvas and mixed media on perspex 115 x 175 cm
I AM A MALAY BOY acrylic on canvas and mixed media on perspex 115 x 175 cm
GUILTY acrylic on canvas and mixed media on perspex 115 x 175 cm
THE END IS NEAR acrylic on canvas and mixed media on perspex 115 x 175 cm
WE WANT YOU! acrylic on canvas and mixed media on perspex 115 x 175 cm
SEX, VIOLENCE & GOVERNMENT acrylic on canvas and mixed media on perspex 188 x 188 cm
DAWUD VS JALUT acrylic on canvas and mixed media on perspex 190 x 250 cm
LOVE CAN SAVE YOU acrylic on canvas and mixed media on perspex 115 x 175 cm
RISE ABOVE acrylic on canvas and mixed media on perspex 115 x 175 cm
MAKE BELIEVE acrylic on canvas and mixed media on perspex 115 x 175 cm
AMERICAN IDLE acrylic on canvas and mixed media on perspex 115 x 175 cm
THE POWER OF EQUALITY acrylic on canvas and mixed media on perspex 202 x 172 cm
HAIL SAVIOR! enamel paint, ready-made plastic baby doll and wooden bird cage 62 x 34 x 34 cm
secret identities justin lim 4 November – 27 November 2010
justinlim.art@gmail.com
Justin Lim (b. 1983 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) completed his postgraduate studies in 2006 with the Master of Art (Fine Art) programme by The Open University UK conducted at Lasalle-SIA College of the Arts, Singapore after obtaining a BA(Hons) Fine Art majoring in painting. His works have been acquired for public and private collections and he has exhibited widely in South East Asia in various solo and group exhibitions. In 2007,he was the Artist-In-Residence at TAKSU, Kuala Lumpur and was awarded the 2008 Rimbun Dahan Malaysia-Australia Visual Artist Residency. He has also exhibited at the Asian Art Biennial at the Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in 2009 and was recently awarded the 2011 Asian Artist Fellowship at the Vermont Studio Center, USA, sponsored by the Freeman Foundation.
2006 Master of Art (Fine Art) Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapore/Open University UK 2005 Bachelor of Arts (Hons) Painting Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapore 2003 Diploma in Visual & Digital Art Limkokwing Institute of Creative Technology Solo Exhibitions 2010 Secret Identities TAKSU, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 2009 Gods, Heroes & Myths Rimbun Dahan, Selangor, Malaysia 2007 Agents, Actions & Consequences TAKSU, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 2006 Momentum TAKSU, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Selected Group Exhibitions 2010 Survival Rimbun Dahan, Selangor, Malaysia
1Malaysia Contemporary Art Festival (MCAT) Galeri Seri Perdana, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
BOLEH! TAKSU, Singapore
Tiger Show Wei-Ling Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Locals Only! TAKSU, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
2009 Viewpoints & Viewing Points Asian Art Biennial, Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts Tai Chung, Taiwan
Iskandar Malaysian Contemporary Art Show (IMCAS) Johor Bahru, Malaysia
Tanah Air Rimbun Dahan, Selangor, Malaysia
The Fab Four TAKSU, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Peninsula & Island TAKSU, Singapore
Home CHAI House, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
2008 Shifting Boundaries Rimbun Dahan, Selangor, Malaysia
Exhibition X TAKSU, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Locals Only! TAKSU, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Peninsula & Island TAKSU, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
2007 Singapore ART Show Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
Nasi Campur TAKSU, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
ARTSingapore Suntec Convention Center, Singapore
2006 The New Messengers TAKSU, Singapore
Rage Against the Dying of the Light La Libreria, Singapore
MFA Degree Show Earl Lu Gallery Institute of Contemporary Art, Singapore
2005 Urban on Urban Earl Lu Gallery Institute of Contemporary Art, Singapore
Balthus Bemused by Colour Earl Lu Gallery Institute of Contemporary Art, Singapore
2003 Germany in Mind National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
The Circle Limkokwing Institute of Creative Technology Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
VDA LICT Atrium, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
2 Arts on a Jade Stone LICT Atrium, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
2002 Breathe in, Breathe Out LICT Atrium, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Palestine Day Islamic Arts Museum, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Vertical Horizontal LICT Atrium, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Eyes Wide Open LICT Atrium, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Selected Art Activities & Performances 2010 Hi! Seoul Festival Seoul, Korea 2009 Tai Chung International Jazz Festival Tai Chung, Taiwan 2008 Penang Island Jazz Festival Penang, Malaysia
ZhuJiaJiao Water Village World Music Festival Shanghai, China
2007 Rainforest World Music Festival Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia 2006 Jarasum International Jazz Festival Seoul, Korea
1st Korean Peace Festival Seoul, Korea
2005 Malaysian Drum Festival (Pesta Gendang Malaysia) Kelantan, Malaysia
Malaysian Traditional Music Festival Pahang, Malaysia
2004 Sunrise Jazz Festival Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Johor Arts Festival Johor, Malaysia
2002 Penang Arts Festival Penang, Malaysia Scholarships, Awards & Residencies 2011 Asian Artist Fellowship Vermont Studio Center, USA 2008 Malaysia-Australia Visual Artist Residency Rimbun Dahan, Selangor, Malaysia 2007 Taksu Artist Residency Programme (TARP) TAKSU, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 2006 Lasalle-SIA College of the Arts Scholarship 2003 President’s Scholar Award Limkokwing Institute of Creative Technology
Honorable mention Goethe & Daimler Chrysler Art competition, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Acknowledgements
The artist would like to thank Suherwan Abu + TAKSU, Stephen Choi + Miew Ling, Maria Chua, Mohd. Syukur, Mat, Nor Mahnun Mohamed, Ahmad Fuad Osman, Fauzulyusri, Samsudin Wahab, Ivan Lam, Umibaizurah, Wong Chee Meng, Ben Ng, Wawa + Jack Jackson, Jason Tan Highway, Gina Fairley, Jeffrey Lim (Studio 25), collectors and friends.
terces seititnedi mil nitsuj 17 Jalan Pawang 54000 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia
This catalogue is published to accompany a solo exhibition by Justin Lim entitled secret identities at TAKSU Kuala Lumpur on 4 Nov – 27 Nov 2010
www.taksu.com
All rights reserved. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or means, electronic or mechanical, including any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior permission in writing from the publisher.
Essay Gina Fairley Photography Jason Highway Tan Portraiture Jeffrey Lim Catalog concept & design Jeffrey Lim / Studio 25 Printer Unico Services
Catalogue © 2010 TAKSU Kuala Lumpur Paintings © 2010 Justin Lim