Land holds stories like a sponge holds water. Or vinegar for that matter. Stories, narratives, and myths permeate the landscape and bubble up in certain places where the membrane between truth and fiction is the thinnest. These are places with a sense of place, where identities are bared and where we are tied to the soil. But is place a construction of the mind longing for belonging? Do we convince ourselves of the importance of a location and the stories tied to it out of a desire to mythologise ourselves and our attachment to the stories of those long gone?
Lim explores the contradictory nature of mythology and place through the constructions of the bucolic, wilderness, and the eerie magical worlds in which we re-narrate our histories, creating connections to the fantastical, cosmological, and microbial. By processes of walking through the landscape and by mining personal and cultural memory, he probes the spectral nature of these stories which return again and again, cutting across and through the timelines of those who hear and repeat them. If there is such a thing as connection to a landscape, how do we hold it and what does it mean to us?
Kenji Lim is a British artist based in London and born in Singapore. He studied Sculpture at the Royal College of Art, London (MA - 2017-2019); and the Ruskin School of Art, Oxford University (BFA - 1999-2002). Recent exhibitions include Neverafter at Galerie Reinthaler, Vienna; and The Flood Machine at The Window Project, Cambridge.
Lim explores the contradictory nature of mythology and place through the constructions of the bucolic, wilderness, and the eerie magical worlds in which we re-narrate our histories, creating connections to the fantastical, cosmological, and microbial. By processes of walking through the landscape and by mining personal and cultural memory, he probes the spectral nature of these stories which return again and again, cutting across and through the timelines of those who hear and repeat them. If there is such a thing as connection to a landscape, how do we hold it and what does it mean to us?
Kenji Lim is a British artist based in London and born in Singapore. He studied Sculpture at the Royal College of Art, London (MA - 2017-2019); and the Ruskin School of Art, Oxford University (BFA - 1999-2002). Recent exhibitions include Neverafter at Galerie Reinthaler, Vienna; and The Flood Machine at The Window Project, Cambridge.
Education:
2017 - 2019 MA sculpture - Royal College of Art, London
1999 - 2002 BFA - Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art , Oxford University
Selected Exhibitions:
07/2020 Small Pleasures - DINA, Sheffield (online)
07/2020 Arts Territory Exchange Sound Library - online
05/2020 Biosphere Consciousness - Conscious Isolation, Instagram
05/2020 Gardens of Earthly Delight, Instagram
04/2020 Isolation - Conscious Isolation, Instagram
01/2020 The Flood Machine - The Window Project, Cambridge
11/2019 Something Written or Recorded - a_space_is_a_space, Instagram
11/2019 Neverafter - Galerie Reinthaler, Vienna
10/2019 Re - Southwark Park Galleries, London
06/2019 RCA Degree Show, RCA Kensington, London
03/2019 Dirty Hands and Revelations - Standpoint, London
02/2019 Merzibition - Courtyard Gallery, RCA, London
06/2018 Supercult I & II - Hockney Gallery, RCA, London
01/2017 WIP - RCA Sculpture, London
09/2017 Hanes: tales, stories, legends & myths - Aberystwyth Arts Centre
07/2017 The Forest at the End of the World - Blue Ginger Gallery, Herefordshire
05/2017 Embodied Cartographies - Walcot Chapel, Bath (as part of Fringe Arts Bath)
05/2017 Beasts of the Mabinogion - Oriel CRiC, Crickhowell
03/2017 The Words Come From the Land and the Sea Takes Them - Porth Melgan, St. Davids, Pembrokeshire
02/2017 Art + Text - 44AD, Bath
10/2016 RWA164 - Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
10/2016 Art Language Location - Cambridge
10/2016 Wells Art Contemporary 2016 - Bishops Palace, Wells
05/2016 TimeFrame - 94 Walcot st, Bath (as part of Fringe Arts Bath)
03/2016 The Peace of Wild Things - Blue Ginger Gallery, Herefordshire
02/2016 OV Mixed Media - Sir Terry Frost Gallery, Worcester
10/2015 RWA163 - Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
10/2015 Art Language Location - Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge
06/2015 Beginning Times - The Globe at Hay, Hay-on-Wye (solo)
05/2015 Love and Death @ Walcot Chapel - Walcot Chapel, Bath (as part of Fringe Arts Bath)
10/2014 Art Gemini Prize 2014 Exhibition - Tri-Space Gallery, London
10/2014 East-West Art Award Competition (EWAAC) 2014 Exhibition - La Galleria, London
06/2014 At Home With Strangers - Design Festa Gallery, Tokyo (solo)
03/2014 New Artist Fair - Candid Arts Galleries, London
10/2013 Vienna Showcase - MOYA, Vienna, Austria
09/2013 Herefordshire Art Week - Blue Ginger Gallery, Herefordshire
09/2013 New Artist Fair - Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, London
07/2012 ThreeNine and Friends - Bristol
04/2012 Fringe Arts Bath Open Exhibition - The Old Officer's Club, Bath
07/2002 Ruskin Degree Show - Ruskin School, Oxford
03/2002 Becks Futures Student Prize 2002 - ICA, London (and Touring)
Awards, Residencies and Publications:
03/2020 Mustarinda, Finland - Residency including Slow Travel Grant
07/2019 Moonlight Is Sculpture - Publication
07/2018 Merz Barn Residency, Chapel Stile, Cumbria
09-10/2016 Mustarinda, Finland - Residency
10/2016 Wells Art Contemporary 2016 - Shortlisted
10/2015 Art Language Location, ALL2015 award - Winner
10/2014 The State of Art: Landscape & Portrait #1 - Bare Hill Publishing
09/2014 ArtGeminiPrize 2014 - Shortlisted
09/2014 East-West Art Award Competition (EWAAC) 2014 - Finalist
02/2013 BYVM X Burton Snowboards Design competition - Finalist
07/2002 Becks Futures Student Prize for Film and Video 2002 - Shortlisted and placed 3rd
2017 - 2019 MA sculpture - Royal College of Art, London
1999 - 2002 BFA - Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art , Oxford University
Selected Exhibitions:
07/2020 Small Pleasures - DINA, Sheffield (online)
07/2020 Arts Territory Exchange Sound Library - online
05/2020 Biosphere Consciousness - Conscious Isolation, Instagram
05/2020 Gardens of Earthly Delight, Instagram
04/2020 Isolation - Conscious Isolation, Instagram
01/2020 The Flood Machine - The Window Project, Cambridge
11/2019 Something Written or Recorded - a_space_is_a_space, Instagram
11/2019 Neverafter - Galerie Reinthaler, Vienna
10/2019 Re - Southwark Park Galleries, London
06/2019 RCA Degree Show, RCA Kensington, London
03/2019 Dirty Hands and Revelations - Standpoint, London
02/2019 Merzibition - Courtyard Gallery, RCA, London
06/2018 Supercult I & II - Hockney Gallery, RCA, London
01/2017 WIP - RCA Sculpture, London
09/2017 Hanes: tales, stories, legends & myths - Aberystwyth Arts Centre
07/2017 The Forest at the End of the World - Blue Ginger Gallery, Herefordshire
05/2017 Embodied Cartographies - Walcot Chapel, Bath (as part of Fringe Arts Bath)
05/2017 Beasts of the Mabinogion - Oriel CRiC, Crickhowell
03/2017 The Words Come From the Land and the Sea Takes Them - Porth Melgan, St. Davids, Pembrokeshire
02/2017 Art + Text - 44AD, Bath
10/2016 RWA164 - Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
10/2016 Art Language Location - Cambridge
10/2016 Wells Art Contemporary 2016 - Bishops Palace, Wells
05/2016 TimeFrame - 94 Walcot st, Bath (as part of Fringe Arts Bath)
03/2016 The Peace of Wild Things - Blue Ginger Gallery, Herefordshire
02/2016 OV Mixed Media - Sir Terry Frost Gallery, Worcester
10/2015 RWA163 - Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
10/2015 Art Language Location - Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge
06/2015 Beginning Times - The Globe at Hay, Hay-on-Wye (solo)
05/2015 Love and Death @ Walcot Chapel - Walcot Chapel, Bath (as part of Fringe Arts Bath)
10/2014 Art Gemini Prize 2014 Exhibition - Tri-Space Gallery, London
10/2014 East-West Art Award Competition (EWAAC) 2014 Exhibition - La Galleria, London
06/2014 At Home With Strangers - Design Festa Gallery, Tokyo (solo)
03/2014 New Artist Fair - Candid Arts Galleries, London
10/2013 Vienna Showcase - MOYA, Vienna, Austria
09/2013 Herefordshire Art Week - Blue Ginger Gallery, Herefordshire
09/2013 New Artist Fair - Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, London
07/2012 ThreeNine and Friends - Bristol
04/2012 Fringe Arts Bath Open Exhibition - The Old Officer's Club, Bath
07/2002 Ruskin Degree Show - Ruskin School, Oxford
03/2002 Becks Futures Student Prize 2002 - ICA, London (and Touring)
Awards, Residencies and Publications:
03/2020 Mustarinda, Finland - Residency including Slow Travel Grant
07/2019 Moonlight Is Sculpture - Publication
07/2018 Merz Barn Residency, Chapel Stile, Cumbria
09-10/2016 Mustarinda, Finland - Residency
10/2016 Wells Art Contemporary 2016 - Shortlisted
10/2015 Art Language Location, ALL2015 award - Winner
10/2014 The State of Art: Landscape & Portrait #1 - Bare Hill Publishing
09/2014 ArtGeminiPrize 2014 - Shortlisted
09/2014 East-West Art Award Competition (EWAAC) 2014 - Finalist
02/2013 BYVM X Burton Snowboards Design competition - Finalist
07/2002 Becks Futures Student Prize for Film and Video 2002 - Shortlisted and placed 3rd
