Image courtesy of Lim Charlotte
by Amanda Mok, BA(Hons) Fine Arts Level 2 (2019)
In Vain In Vanity, the title of Lim Charlotte’s first solo exhibition that ran from 10 August to 7 September 2018 at UltraSuperNew Gallery, is a phrase that she coined when she was just 14. 'All is vain and in vain' was something that she observed about life at that time, and is still something she believes about inter-relationships and the human condition today—how the performativity of vanity is inherent in all that mankind engages in, and how everything can be perceived as vain pursuits.
In my bid as both a viewer and interviewer to understand the root of this statement and belief, which was the crux of Lim’s exhibition and art practice, I adopt what the historian Norman Bryson once wrote: “The constative statement ‘all is vanity,’ can only be performed by an image, which, paradoxically, is itself a vanity, a bauble.” If we were to go down the rabbit hole with Bryson’s statement in relation to Lim’s premise and exhibition, we would have to consider that In Vain In Vanity might be in itself a performance of Lim’s vanity, and perhaps ultimately, also done in vain. But I do think Lim is not too bothered about this quagmire. Lim is not someone who situates herself far above, sitting on her high horse, making commentary about the affectation and futility of it all. Instead, she seeks to be honest and vulnerable in the acceptance that she too, is wrapped up within this warped scheme of things. And perhaps with this understanding, she is better equipped to navigate these complexities.
In conversation with Lim Charlotte:
On her process of making work:
My work and my life has always been indistinguishable from each other and are unfortunately inherently intertwined; and so my work fluctuates a lot with my mood. Seasons, 2017, an 11-metre oil painting on chiffon was originally conceived half-heartedly and it took me about half a year to get me head on straight and when the inspiration finally came, I went at it, no holds-barred, and finished it in a week. During that time I actually slept beside the painting. I would just wake up and paint, and then I would drink, and then I would paint…it was a furious haze (I always long for these periods of losing myself to my work) and then it was finally finished. I think I sold it the day of my final assessment. There were these local art collectors who walked in, and they were looking at it for a long time, and so I approached them. They were kind enough to let me borrow it for the exhibition.
On why the human body fascinates her and features so much in her work:
The crux of my work talks about how people cannot intersect and cannot overlap; and if or when we attempt to, we change the original individual entities, we’re all like liquids with different densities, like oil and water. Some of us are miscible and can dissolve into each other and some of us float above each other…it’s all about the ways and extent of how we have contact with one another, so that’s why I work with bodies so much. I always paint people nude. There’s just something very raw and real about it.
In the show there were 15 illustrations of Louboutin Yoga, which is basically a character that I created. I think it was very much of a self-portrait. She wears these Louboutin heels, which, for me, is a symbol of capitalism. The objects that we own— possessions, status, money—our lives are constantly turned into statistics for arbitrary values in self-imposed systems and constructs. She was in these strange yoga poses that I actually posed for. They were really unrealistic - it’s not actually possible to wear heels and do difficult yoga poses. I wanted to convey a discomfort, a very indignant kind of discomfort. An ownership of the discomfort - it’s mine, not yours. I feel like this is an irrefutable human condition where a lot of us choose our discomforts. We recognise that some things are wrong, or bad for us, but we still do them. Exploring the mass cognitive dissonance of our socio-political landscape—I think I’m most proud of that—Louboutin Yoga—so far.
Charlotte’s second solo exhibition, Liquid Porosity [Fire Extinguisher] garang guni buddy, also presented by UltraSuperNew Gallery ran from 19-31 July 2019. For those of you who didn’t manage to catch it, you can still read about it here – https://gallery.ultrasupernew.com/singapore/exhibition/ liquid-porosity-fire-extinguisher-garang-guni-buddy
