Vanessa Lim Shu Yi
10 December 2017 – 14 January 2018
Drowning by Numbers (Detail), acrylic on canvas board, architectural scale figures, architectural scale tiles, polyurethane foam, plaster with marble powder, plaster with paper pulp, fishing bait and hooks, plywood. 170 x 80 cm.
Understudy, calico fabric, hobbyfill stuffing, thread, plywood. dimensions variable.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, acrylic on canvas board, architectural scale figures, architectural scale tiles, polyurethane foam, plaster with marble powder, plaster with paper pulp, fishing bait and hooks, pool noodle, plywood. 170 x 80 cm.
Negative Space 1, calico fabric, hobbyfill stuffing, thread, plywood. 170 x 80 cm.
If pools are merely a moderated version of water bodies, how do we really quantify spatial and material encounters with our immediate surroundings?
water / 1 pulls together tangential aspects of an inquiry into the planning and systems of our man-made environment. Referencing the use of scales in architectural models, these works explore the non-linear relationship between the diagrammatic interpretation of our built environment, and our actual lived experience of these spaces.
Working with painting, sculpture, and assemblage in the manner of constructing prototypes, water / 1 conflates perspectives and dimensions to illustrate new imaginings for a heterotopic site. The installation is also informed by ‘s l o o p s,’ an ongoing series of compositions which could be read as spatial proxies for fictive worlds, or pictorial objects with specific narratives.