JASON LIM (b. 1966, Singapore)
HAIR IN THE WIND
2019
Earthenware Sawdust Firing 900°C, Metal Stick
69 x 94 x 55 cm
My approach to the material is to push its limits, creating tensions and stresses in the work through various hand building techniques and firing processes. Forecasting and predicting the outcome of what comes out of the kiln becomes difficult.
EXCERPTS FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH JASON LIM AND NICOLE SORIANO
Both a performance artist and master ceramicist, Singapore-based artist JASON LIM creates ceramic pieces that transcend their traditional functionality—turning them into raw, organic sculptures deeply connected to ecology, mythology and spirituality. His ceramic pieces thus go beyond being merely objects of beauty, to subjects that provoke thought and interaction with the viewer. Like his sculptures, Lim’s performance art pieces are known to be unconventional and provocative, exploring the energetic, ephemeral characteristics of his materials and encouraging moving, meditative connections with his audiences.
In December 2018, Lim travelled to YAL as an artist-in-residence, where he would pass on his knowledge of building brick kilns for a sawdust firing technique. Working closely with local craftsmen, he was able to create highly tactile, intricate and evocative clay sculptures that were later exhibited in his 2019 solo exhibition, Contemplate. Lim reveals that working with the clay material was his way of collaborating with the unpredictability, and ultimately, fragility of natural things. Transforming this material through fire, he aimed to solidify its energy and capture its essence—a metamorphosis that provided him profound satisfaction.
At YAL, each time when I dismantle the brick kiln, it is like opening a present; the anxiety and excitement is definitely an attraction. From failures and mistakes, I have grown to see beauty in the ugly and make new works from the discarded. Most of the ceramic pieces that were fired and re-fired at least twice in the saw dust kiln. The availability of resources, time constrains and wet weathers are interesting combinations for experimentation and improvisations.
A MOUNTAIN – 一座山
2019
Earthenware sawdust firing 900°C
70 x 45 x 100 cm
REFLECTING LIGHT WITH DARK MIRROR
2019
Earthenware sawdust firing 900°C
55 x 62 x 72 cm
BRIEF REST
2019
Earthenware sawdust firing 900°C, metal stick
68 x 102 x 40 cm
From sourcing and enquiring about the bricks that I used to build the kiln, I learned that the supply of brick is seasonal and is intrinsically linked to the cycle of padi planting and harvesting. This knowledge may not directly influence me in my artistic production but remains as one of my biggest take-away from YAL. Coming from a country where everything is compartmentalized, imported and desensitized, I appreciate that life in Yogya is much more complex and intricately intertwined.