A solo exhibition by Lim Kwong Ling

Chapel Gallery, Objectifs
20 Jun to 28 Jul 2019
Tues to Sat, 12pm to 7pm / Sun, 12pm to 4pm
Admission is free

:: Opening Reception: Sat 22 Jun, 3pm to 5pm
:: Artist Talk: Sun 23 Jun, 2pm to 3pm
Moderated by writer, curator and artist Zhuang Wubin.
:: Guided tours: Please contact us at info@objectifs.com.sg if you wish to arrange for a free curator tour for your student group or organisation.
:: Intergenerational Photography Workshop: Sat 6 Jul, 3pm to 6pm

Purchase Portrait of Home, a new photobook featuring some 60 images by Lim Kwong Ling, here.

Portrait of Home presents black and white photographs of post-independence Singapore in the pictorialist and modernist style by 87-year-old Lim Kwong Ling, a veteran of the local salon and art photography scene. The works in this show depict different facets of home through the photographer’s eyes, from landscapes, to various occupations and industries of the time, to family photos. 

Mr Lim Kwong Ling has been actively involved in the local and overseas Chinese photography scene since the 1970s. He has served as Honorary President of the Photo-Art Association of Singapore, Vice President for The Society of Worldwide Ethnic Chinese Photographers and Visiting Professor of Art Faculty of Nanjing Education University in China, among other roles.

“As a young child, grandfather’s photos left in me a palpable sense of unease. Their monochrome nature lent them a certain historical heaviness, a weight that conveyed the value of tradition and of the home. A window into the mysterious childhood of my father. They gave me something that was never talked about in the family. They seemed as grand a project as the national morphing of Singaporean sociocultural identities they documented. Looking at the photos today, I am still gripped by their extraordinary timelessness and resonance – by how they juxtapose candid and posed family life, while tying those same scenes to a spatial portrayal of Singapore’s pivotal years. These dreamy scenes of kinship and childhood, that seem so fleeting, yet are indelibly captured, draw the viewer into their own intimately personal moments, some remembered and others imagined, impossible to ever physically return to. They present a historical portrait of home: of the project of nation-building, mirrored in the project of raising a family that lead us to think about the transience of identity, inspiration, and passion.” – Maximilian Lim, grandson of Lim Kwong Ling

Press:
SG Magazine: Early Singapore looks serene and surreal in this veteran photographer’s next show

Coconuts Singapore: Reminisce Singapore of the ’60s and ’70s with black-and-white snapshots by an 87-year-old photographer

Mothership: 87-year-old photographer shares wistful black & white shots of S’pore in the 60s & 70s

CNA: Exhibition features photos of Singapore in the 1960s and 1970s

Lianhe Zaobao: 林光霖摄影个展“家的肖像” 建设家园的情感记忆

The A List Singapore: A spectrum of emotions in greyscale

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