* DESIGN OF
THE YEAR 2007

Lim Wei Ling was educated in architecture and design in Singapore and London. She had spent her Undergraduate days as an assistant to set designers, in order to learn the art of scenography. Her 'hands-on' approach, diligence and dedication in this path of study had won her praise and acclaim over the years.

She begins every project by carefully examining the intricacies of human relationships and their unique space of interaction. Then, she delicately weaves an environment that captures all these human sensitivities which are expressed in the form of sculpture, installations, architectural form and fabric. By exploring the synergies between philosophical, intellectual and artistic interpretations, Wei Ling creates deeply intimate spaces imbued with colours and textures that help to tell the story.

"Wei Ling has the flair of interpreting the abstract or unspoken concept in between the lines of a play; she can illustrate the environment by generating energetic designs and sculpting spaces for the settings, so that the world of the play and its characters will surface. Being insightful and having sharp aesthetic sense, she often adopts a neutral approach where the design elements are kept to the fundamental. She plays with complementing colours and materials that reflect ephemeral quality," says Kuo Jian Hong, Artistic Director of the Theatre Practice.

As a cross-disciplinary spatial designer, Wei Ling incorporates a wide range of media in her creations that include architecture, interior design, theatre and film, installation and graphic work. In 2005, she co-founded [+O], a multi-disciplinary group. She has also participated in many major art festivals both locally and overseas. Some of her notable works include Schoenberg...Prismed in 2005 with pianist Shane Thio, where she designed an avant-garde setting to depict the theme of war seen through the eyes of three artists. She had created six pieces of wood installations to each represented a note based on Schoenberg's Six Little Pieces. Op 19. Other memorable scenography projects also include the late Kuo Pao Kun’s musical, Lao Jiu, as well as Moving God with The Theatre Practice in 2003, and Menage à 13 with The Theatre Practice for the Huayi Festival in 2005.

Her recent collaboration with The Finger Players, known for their unique multi-disciplinary approach that fuses theatre, human actors and puppetry has resulted in the creation of an unusual stage performance titled 0501, that was presented at the Victoria Theatre in April 2007. This was a collaborative project consisting of 11 individuals of different disciplines in the arts. Each performer was given five minutes to present their work and hence the name.

Wei Ling's space installation titled [系: web] (xi) was based on a quest to explore the idea of authorship and to develop a work that could attain a life of its own by manifesting itself through the invisible energies and dynamics around it, akin to how living things would grow in our world. Her objective as set designer here was to become one who merely plants and cultivates the idea, sets the parameter and system for a life to grow where allowance can be given to its own intrinsic nature and the dynamics around it to evolve on its own.

By deploying the clever use of ordinary objects such as paper cups and the nostalgic provision shop money tin on pulleys, she was able to create a visual representation of a communication network system. Wei Ling also created 11 isolated islands for each performer to dwell in amidst the audience. A single line led the audience to the entrance of the backstage where it started splitting into a massive web of hanging tins. The performers were able to communicate with each other by placing an object or a message within this system, much like a letterbox. This ultimately became a web of constellations that traced the movements and inherent relationships between people that can grow with time. This was a simple yet dynamic stage production and performance, no doubt.