ART, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY SERIES, 1994
IT's Happening!
represents Lin Hsin Hsin latest exhibition of 85 works comprising 18 oil on canvas paintings, 61 Oil on paper works, 1 installation and 5 ceramics.
According to the artist, "IT", in the title. "IT's Happening!",
pun intended, stands for Information Technology and thus the theme of this exhibition and the
series if works which focus on Art, Science and Technology. This is certainly an
area which the artist is extremely familiar with, given her background in
mathematics and computer science (a graduate in Mathematics, University of
Singapore and postgraduate in Computer Science, University of
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England) and her years of practice as an artist. That these
disparate elements, Art, Science and Technology came to meet in Lin's works and
that she would choose to devote a series of works to the discourse on these three
areas is a foregone conclusion, given Lin's penchant for relating her art to
daily experiences and the current prominence and the increasing proximity and
interrelationship of these three disciplines.
Lin Hsin Hsin started to introduce the element of the narrative in her series,
"Back to Nature" in 1992 and continued the element of the narrative in her
series, "Memoirs of Deutschland II" in 1993. In the present series, the same
elements reappear however with a difference. Here the narration is event oriented
and are derived from particular instances of recalled experiences, then
embroidered and fitted within a storyline in the artist's fertile imagination;
while in the earlier series (1992), they deal more with the actual tangibles of
common office politics.
However, the same repertoire of animals, such as frog, the turtle, the snake etc.
and the string figures are utilized especially in the paper works and again they
take on the persona of the human subjects. This adopted persona does not
necessarily go hand in hand with accepted norms or conventions commonly
associated with the animals, instead the anim SIZE=+2als take on particular human
characteristics endowed by the artist.
As in most of Lin Hsin Hsin's works, this particular series shows the same light
hearted treatment in the area of composition, color and subject. Colors are
characteristically bright, in jewel tones of greens, oranges and incandescent
blues, though there is an increasing usec of white and blank, unprimed canvas and
the incorporation of computer generated text. The works show the same maturity of
treatment both in terms of medium and subject. One is therefore held more or less
in stasis in a society where departures, pr SIZE=+2ogressions and developments are a
norm.
The interesting question is why. Why are the experiences marginalized and
internalized? Why is there such a front? What is the psychological makeup that
transmutes the most personal and deeply felt experiences into superficial,
light-hearted characterizations and compositions? Albeit hey are offtimes
satirical and cynical, deliberately distancing the creator from the creation and
thus achieving and maintaining a particular remoteness front the spectacle of
human foibles. Perhaps, this is merely a form of psychological defense, a
particular method of dealing with angst, perhaps, they are just different facets
of the person, the artist and the woman. In any case, the works of Lin Hsin Hsin
are more than they seem, one certainly needs to pay attention to the complexities
of character, training and experiences.
Susie Koay
Curator of Art, Singapore Art Museum, Lin Hsin Hsin: Works from Art, Science and Technology Series,
1994, p. 9
Art, Science & Technology Series
digital art museum, first virtual museum in the world since 1994
ART, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY SERIES, 1994
represents Lin Hsin Hsin latest exhibition of 85 works comprising 18 oil on canvas paintings, 61 Oil on paper works, 1 installation and 5 ceramics.
According to the artist, "IT", in the title. "IT's Happening!",
pun intended, stands for Information Technology and thus the theme of this exhibition and the
series if works which focus on Art, Science and Technology. This is certainly an
area which the artist is extremely familiar with, given her background in
mathematics and computer science (a graduate in Mathematics, University of
Singapore and postgraduate in Computer Science, University of
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England) and her years of practice as an artist. That these
disparate elements, Art, Science and Technology came to meet in Lin's works and
that she would choose to devote a series of works to the discourse on these three
areas is a foregone conclusion, given Lin's penchant for relating her art to
daily experiences and the current prominence and the increasing proximity and
interrelationship of these three disciplines.
Lin Hsin Hsin started to introduce the element of the narrative in her series,
"Back to Nature" in 1992 and continued the element of the narrative in her
series, "Memoirs of Deutschland II" in 1993. In the present series, the same
elements reappear however with a difference. Here the narration is event oriented
and are derived from particular instances of recalled experiences, then
embroidered and fitted within a storyline in the artist's fertile imagination;
while in the earlier series (1992), they deal more with the actual tangibles of
common office politics.
However, the same repertoire of animals, such as frog, the turtle, the snake etc.
and the string figures are utilized especially in the paper works and again they
take on the persona of the human subjects. This adopted persona does not
necessarily go hand in hand with accepted norms or conventions commonly
associated with the animals, instead the anim SIZE=+2als take on particular human
characteristics endowed by the artist.
As in most of Lin Hsin Hsin's works, this particular series shows the same light
hearted treatment in the area of composition, color and subject. Colors are
characteristically bright, in jewel tones of greens, oranges and incandescent
blues, though there is an increasing usec of white and blank, unprimed canvas and
the incorporation of computer generated text. The works show the same maturity of
treatment both in terms of medium and subject. One is therefore held more or less
in stasis in a society where departures, pr SIZE=+2ogressions and developments are a
norm.
The interesting question is why. Why are the experiences marginalized and
internalized? Why is there such a front? What is the psychological makeup that
transmutes the most personal and deeply felt experiences into superficial,
light-hearted characterizations and compositions? Albeit hey are offtimes
satirical and cynical, deliberately distancing the creator from the creation and
thus achieving and maintaining a particular remoteness front the spectacle of
human foibles. Perhaps, this is merely a form of psychological defense, a
particular method of dealing with angst, perhaps, they are just different facets
of the person, the artist and the woman. In any case, the works of Lin Hsin Hsin
are more than they seem, one certainly needs to pay attention to the complexities
of character, training and experiences.
Susie Koay
Curator of Art, Singapore Art Museum, Lin Hsin Hsin: Works from Art, Science and Technology Series,
1994, p. 9
Art, Science & Technology Series
digital art museum, first virtual museum in the world since 1994