Hannah Lim @ Edinburgh Printmakers

We associate the word 'ornamental' with objects whose sole purpose is to be aesthetically pleasing: taken at face value they have no other scope or meaning than to embellish a space. For centuries, this has been the attitude reserved for Asian (and particularly Chinese) art by Western onlookers. Obsessed with the intricacy of Chinese design, Western artists and collectors built a taste for ‘Chinoiserie’ during the 18th century.

Western art subsequently became populated with artworks and furniture designs which included Chinese-inspired patterns and motifs. Hollowed out of any understanding and appreciation for Chinese culture, the motifs were imitated in relation to European aesthetic taste; thus primarily, if not exclusively, valued for their ornamental function.

Hannah Lim challenges this dynamic with her first solo show in Scotland, titled Ornamental Mythologies, currently on display at Edinburgh Printmakers. Through her works, the artist explores her cultural identity as a woman of mixed Singaporean and British heritage reclaiming a culturally appropriate way to imagine the practice of Western appreciation for Chinese designs and patterns. 

Lim reinterprets traditional Chinese subjects and designs – such as dragons and lions – across a variety of media including sculptures, installations, drawings and prints. Other references to Chinese visual tradition include the recurrent use of bilateral symmetries: the symbol of balance in Chinese culture and a key aesthetic parameter in its visual and architectural tradition. Lim’s prints and drawings, such as Droplets, Bowing Swans, and The Watchful Lion, demonstrate this principle. The layout of the room respects a symmetrical approach too. Standing in front of the large central installation Hanging Spider, its lower point sits perfectly in the middle of the seemingly multiplying swans of the sculpture Bowing Swan, dividing the room into two mirrored sides. 

Lim engages with the challenges posed by the large exhibiting space of Edinburgh Printmakers by placing her small Snuff Bottle series on wooden carved shelves. Positioned at eye level, the shelves draw visitors in to appreciate the minute details of these works, with their complex elements and soft-toned matching palette. Painted brackets on the walls frame the works within the two long sides of the gallery – a smart artifice to further focus audiences’ attention on Lim’s prints and sculptures. 

Layered with symbols from different cultures, Lim’s work is informed by her research about animism, traditional Chinese storytelling and Medieval bestiaries, which infuses her sculptural works with anthropomorphic shapes. While artworks like Shards of Fire appear more abstract, the Snuff Bottle series works more literally, with the artist equipping each of the boxes with small animal paws that animate the mythical creatures sculpted on their surfaces in a playful way. Lim’s research touches on an exploration of her Chinese-Singaporean family’s relationship with Christianity, leading the audience into a world of hybrid symbols and creatures that emerge from the encounter of multiple cultures. 

The use of space in the exhibition cleverly conveys Lim’s intention to challenge the ornamental attitude reserved for Chinoiserie, while simultaneously addressing the challenges of exhibiting minute works in an expansive space such as the lower gallery of Edinburgh Printmakers. For example, by placing the Snuff Bottles on intricately carved shelves, Lim hints at their ornamental nature as they evoke aesthetic, yet purposeless dust-catchers often left forgotten on shelves and mantelpieces. The exhibition layout also enhances Lim’s desire to subvert attitudes about non-Western art. 

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Hannah Lim: Ornamental Mythologies, Edinburgh Printmakers, until 20 Nov

Images courtesy of Edinburgh Printmakers. Photography by Alan Dimmick.