We are very pleased to announce The Beginning of Something a solo exhibition by international contemporary artist H.H. Lim, to be held at Wei-Ling Contemporary this February.

The eastern philosophical tradition tells us that life is nothing but a perpetual cycle of life and death. What in a specific moment begins, has already had an end in the past and sooner or later will end again, in an infinite cycle of impermanent existences.

H.H. Lim’s Beginning is set anywhere in this circle: it does not matter, after all, whether it is the beginning of an end or the end of a beginning, because every moment is essential as much as the other ones to the continuity of life. In this undefined instant, man puts the universal cyclic nature back inside the boundaries of one’s own specific existence, keeping constant the balance between necessity and fulfillment, between temptation and completion.

In dealing with this topic, Lim uses his customary language, taking his inspiration from the images that fill contemporary daily life; the expensive objects scattered randomly across the Wei-Ling Gallery’s floor are the leading elements of a perpetual tension process towards possession, they are the fragile targets of the ephemeral passions of today’s man.

To the artist, this recurrent search of stimulation and pleasure resolves in what he himself calls a “grown-up game”. The pleasure that man feels in using and then disposing of unnecessary goods, as well as the outcome of a consumerist society, can also be interpreted as the search for novelty and knowledge, similar to the one that pushes a baby to ignore a toy that he used to love as soon as he gets a new one into his hands. The artworks themselves become provocatively subjected to this logic of possession and abandonment and the drawings, dispersed so carelessly, as if they were the umpteenth leftovers of an alienated community, join the magnificent ornaments in a state of chaos, inducing the viewer, by contrast, to pay more attention to them and therefore to question their real significance.

On the surface of the long canvas called Hard Rain, the flying helicopters are the mirror of our condition: one of external spectators and victims, of subject-object in the storm that shakes the world. Beaten by an unmerciful rain, we move forward, lost towards the hope of salvation, and as the young actor playing the lead character of the short-film Sunshine through the Rain by Akira Kurosawa, to whom Lim pays tribute with this work, we pursue a place which goes beyond space and time, where finally the circle will be broken and we will be given the comfort of an answer. This place is metaphorically represented by the roots of the rainbow, nothing but a sheer mirage, the glimpse of which the artist however impishly leaves us on the canvas.

Born in Kedah, Malaysia, Lim has practiced art in Rome since the year 1976 and has remained since, finding himself continuously inspired by the city’s energy. A Neo-conceptual artist with a disposition for colossal works, Lim is known to incorporate elements of everyday life into his works, which at times are recycled, repackaged and framed, taking on a different meaning and new life. In the past, Lim’s conceptual works have consisted of paintings, installations, performance art as well as recorded video and sound.

H.H. Lim believes that artists are missionaries, and we are the testimony of what is happening in our time, that the showing of ideas is like a calling, a mission, and that he is in need of a public, an audience, to enliven the artwork, as visitors animate the artwork or dead spaces.

To date, the artist has shown widely in Asia, Europe and the United States and very recently having participated in the 55th Venice Biennale under the Cuban Pavilion as well as in the 6th Prague Biennale, both in the year 2013.

The Beginning of Something features at Wei-Ling Contemporary from 17th February – 31st March 2014.
Wei-Ling Contemporary is located at G212 Ground Floor, The Gardens Mall, 59200, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Wei-Ling Contemporary is open Daily from 10am-9pm. Admission is free.
Please call 0322601106/0322828323 or email weiling.shaz@gmail.com for more information.
You may also visit our website at www.weiling-gallery.com or our Facebook page at Wei-Ling Gallery.