William Lim: Willows Dark Flowers Bright

EVENT DESCRIPTION

Artist Statement

My paintings provide me with emotional release and a record of time. I was “locked down” in Hong Kong due to the third year of the pandemic. At home, my family and I developed a fondness for botany, our enjoyment as simple as visiting the flower market and bringing home some cut flowers.

I started to paint flowers and plants. During this difficult period, I developed a stronger respect for the strength and resilience of plants.

In my mind, I revisited the places I cannot travel to at the moment. One favorite is Giverny. I started to paint it from a photograph I took, and I realized how the lines, planes and dots from the willows, the lily pads floating on water reflections, and the flora all around shaped Monet’s impressionistic compositions.
It inspired me to tell stories through my paintings, which are both real and expressionistic. I record through my paintings the reality around me, and the voyages in my imagination.

The title “Willows Dark Flowers Bright” comes from a Song Dynasty Chinese poem. The poet went for a hike one day, crossing mountains and rough waters. Just as he thought the path ahead was bleak and he was heading nowhere, he discovered another village with willows dark and flowers bright.

As we slowly come out of the fifth wave of the pandemic, I feel my paintings are starting to project a brighter future.

ABOUT THE ARTIST / ORGANISER

William Lim likes to introduce himself as an “architect, artist and collector, not necessary in that order”. This means that his all-encompassing interest in art and creativity informs a crossing over in various disciplines to result in a rich, diverse career and artistic thinking.

Graduated from Cornell University, U.S.A., with a master degree in Architecture minoring in Photography, William has shown early on his interest in both art and architecture, which explains his award winning design practice CL3, celebrated for its architecture commissions such as H Queen’s, a gallery high rise building in Hong Kong or artistic commissions such as the West Kowloon Bamboo Theatre, a bamboo installation which received the Grand Award and Special Award for Culture in “Design for Asia Award “ in 2013.

William on his own is an accomplished artist focusing on largescale installations, and recently work on canvas. Throughout his artistic career he has been shown internationally, most notably Lantern Wonderland HK 2003 & 2011, Venice Biennale’s International Architectural Exhibition in 2006 & 2010, Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture in 2007, 2009, 2012, 2017 and Architecture and Heritage: Unearthing Future, Seoul, Korea, 2019. He held a solo exhibition, “A Year of Lost and Found” at Grotto Fine Art in 2021.

Committed to promoting culture and education, William is currently on the Board of Trustees for Cornell University, member of Arts and Culture Council and Gallery Advisory Committee for Asia Society Hong Kong Center, and member of Museum Expert Advisers for the Leisure and Cultural Services Department. He was conferred an Honorary Doctorate degree by Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in 2018. In 2019, William and his wife donated nearly 100 artworks to M+ in Hong Kong.