My work responds to my cultural identity and experience. As a person of mixed Singaporean and British heritage both my research and practice has come to engage with the colonial connotations of the relationship between the East and the West. These connotations are most evident in themes such as Orientalism and its relationship to Chinoiserie; an 18th-century aesthetic trend in which elements of Chinese design were recreated in relation to European aesthetics and tastes. I attempt to re-imagine and reclaim ideas and designs associated with the Chinoiserie, which have in the past had problematic colonial undertones. Cultural designs are shared as opposed to appropriated, it is no longer about one culture being moulded to the demands of another.
I create furniture-like structures that are ornamental but also functional. These are usually flat-packable and when assembled are often anthropomorphic in stature and shape. These objects are culturally coded, they reference an aesthetic trend that saw the appropriation of Chinese design as a result of Britain's colonial conquests however they are also playful and peculiar, their creature-like bodies depict them as having a life of their own.
Education
Foundation Diploma Art and Design, Central Saint Martins
BA Hons Sculpture, Edinburgh College of Art, The University of Edinburgh
MFA, Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford
Exhibitions
Solo and Duo Shows/projects:
Solo show with Pangolin London, August 2024 (upcoming)
Public Sculpture Installation for Lunar New Year with Greenwich Peninsula 2024
Bestiaries, Wilder Gallery, London, 2023 (solo)
Shards of Fire, BeAdvisors, London, 2023 (solo)
Alcova Milano, design fair presentation, Milan, 2023 (solo)
The Tiger’s Gaze, Huxley-Parlour, London, 2022 (solo)
Ornamental Mythologies, Edinburgh Printmakers, Edinburgh, 2022 (solo)
In the Margins, Commonage Projects, London, 2022 (solo)
Inanimate Creatures, Changing Room Gallery, London, 2022 (solo)
Carnalia, Blue Shop Galleries, March 2024 (duo)
Tigers and Dragons and Ghosts Oh My!, Dinner Gallery, New York, 2022 (duo)
Parts of Self with Courtenay Welcome, Home by Ronan McKenzie x Cob Gallery Residency Show, London, 2021 (duo)
Porta Sancta with Hugo Harris, Underground Flower x Harlesden High Street, 2021 (duo)
Group Shows:
Material Girls and Their Muses, Vitrine Gallery - curated by Marcelle Joseph, April 2024 (upcoming)
Art Toronto with Duran Marshaal Gallery, October 2023
Alcova Showroom, September 2023
Unannounced, BeAdvisors x Lampo, Milan, 2023
ARRIVAL, Duran Marshaal Gallery, Montreal, Canada, 2023
When The Heart Of The Pig Has Hardened Dice It Small, Kirki Projects, Tinos, Greece, 2023
Songs of Hekate, Pictorum Gallery, London, 2023
The Pink Room, Parlour London, 2023
British Art Fair with Royal Scottish Academy, Saatchi Gallery, 2022
Eat Drink, Man Woman, 180 The Strand, London, 2022
Red Room, Berntson Bhattacharjee, London, 2022
Bloomberg New Contemporaries, London, 2021/2022
RSA New Contemporaries, Royal Scottish Academy, 2022
Next, Christies, 2022
Into the Fire, Grove Collective, London, 2022
Konomad, Tokyo, 2022
Dirt and Desire, K.Halstead, London, 2021
Mouth Parts, St Margrets House, 2021
Under Your Spell, Collective Ending, London, 2021
Zao Tang, Local Collective x Stigma, London, 2021
The Factory Project, Delphian Gallery, 2021
Origin, Delphian Gallery, London, 2021
The Holy Grail, OHSH Projects, 2021
Final, Not Over - Again, Unit One Gallery, 2021
From a Safe Distance, Raen Barnsley x Auction Collective, 2021
The Graduates: Four Pillars, Tatha Gallery, 2021
Year of the OX, Steamroom East / Don’t Call me Oriental, London, 2021
Wretched Light Industry, Serving the People, supported by Creative Scotland, New York, 2020 Pending, San Mei Gallery, Brixton, 2020
After Hours, Harlesden High Street x Bowes Parris Gallery, 2020 Unmuted, Sky Arts, 2020.
Museum of Half Truths, 1a Space, Hong Kong, 2020
EXH 04, Floorr Magazine, 2020
Maggies x ArtThou No Borders Initiative, ArtThou, Scotland, 2020 PATIO-PROJECT, Georgia Stephenson, London, 2020
A THESISSS SHOW, Something Special Studios, New York, 2020
RSA Annual Exhibition, Edinburgh, 2020
Dreams, Grapevine Residency, 2020
Space Invaders: RCA X ECA Exchange, Sculpture Court, 2020
The Potion Room, Subsidiary Projects, 2020
Buffering, Sculpture Court, Edinburgh College of Art, 2020
RCA x ECA sculpture exchange, Royal College of Art, 2019
Yerzel, Edinburgh College of Art, 2019
Kubla Khan, Safehouse 1, Peckham, 2019
Astaire Art Prize, Edinburgh College of Art, 2019
Butter on Bacon, Hospitalfield House, 2019
Material Dialogues, Fire Station, Lauriston Place, 2019
Criss Cross (performance), HengTang, Chengdu, 2018
Awards
Pangolin London 2022-2023 Artist in Residence
Selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries, 2021
Selected for RSA New Contemporaries, 2022
Selected for Home by Ronan Mckenzie x Cob Gallery Studio Residency, supported by Glossier, 2021
Clason-Harvie Bursary, 2020
RSA John Kinross Scholarship, 2020
Selected for Georgia Stephenson’s Patio Project (funded by The Freelands Foundation), 2020
Selected Artist for Short Supply: Made It, 2020
Shortlisted for the Astaire Prize, 2019, 2020
Hospitalfield Residency, 2019
Selected Talks, Educational and Design work:
Mentoring with V&A and Social Space, March 2024
Artist Talk, Aesthetica Symposium, February 2024
Polymer Clay workshop, Greenwich Peninsula, February 2024
Artist Talk, East London Art Prize x LCF, November 2023
Artist Talk, City and Guilds MA, November 2023
MAKE Space polymer clay workshop with Hannah Lim, V&A East, 2022
Group talk on The Teapot Prince - with Edmund de Waal and Matt Smith, The University of Oxford, 2022
20:20, talk at The Royal Scottish Academy, 2022
Flat Pack Design - Writing for The Museum of Half Truths, 2021
Respect Our Elders, digital artworks designed for Boiler Room and Eastern Margins livestream, 2021
In Conversation On Technology, talk supported and organised by Fuse, Red Eye and Short Supply, 2021
Selected Press
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ornamental-mythologies-a-lively-witty-study-of-two-cultures-939smqv5l
Architectural Digest: https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/new-generation-of-asian-artists-on-chinese-ceramics
Floorr Magazine: https://www.floorrmagazine.com/issue-28/hannah-lim
Hype Beast: https://hypebeast.com/2021/7/hannah-lim-sculptural-art
New Contemporaries: https://www.newcontemporaries.org.uk/2021/artists/hannah-lim-
It’s Nice That: https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/hannah-lim-art-sculpture-160721
https://www.wallpaper.com/beauty-grooming/malin-goetz-pop-up-art-gallery-bathhouse-London
https://www.archdaily.com/971679/zao-tang-pop-up-gallery-on-asian-arts-and-feminism-local-collective-plus-stigma-room
https://www.newcontemporaries.org.uk/2021/artists/hannah-lim-
Unmuted, SKY ARTS, December 2020
https://art-verge.com/pending-art-exhibition-fundraiser-at-san-mei/
https://artmag.co.uk/art-thou-without-borders/
https://artmag.co.uk/23883-2/?fbclid=IwAR1KDjbpDYgdYOJcQjwuEUmWQEExg-aBqRjhNSmTM_NbMQfpWvkvbI-PUgg
https://od-magazine.com/home/2020/5/18/a-thesisss-show
https://elephant.art/how-art-students-are-sharing-and-organising-through-the-crisis-23042020/
https://fadmagazine.com/2020/02/18/the-potion-room-at-subsidiary-projects/
https://www.grapevine.earth/hannahlim/
https://sukeban.co.uk/art/hannah-lim/9510/