Continuum of Consciousness
Linda Sim Solay
A Roma Arts production in collaboration with
IFI-Bandung
Curated by Roy Voragen
Supported by Oma Anna
Opening 12 October 7pm officiated by Tisna Sanjaya
Artist talk 13 October 4pm
The exhibition runs until 25 October
Institut Français Indonesia-Bandung
http://www.institutfrancais-indonesia.com/bandung
Jl. Purnawarman no. 32, Bandung
Singapore-based, 30-year old photography and
installation artist Linda Sim Solay did a one-month residency at Roma Arts,
Bandung, in June, and she returns to present her work at Institut Français
Indonesia-Bandung. I first met her at a seminar Roma Arts organized at Selasar
Sunaryo Art Space, December 2011. During her residency, the then work-in-progress
installation had the working title Samtana
(a Sanskrit term for stream of consciousness). While in Bandung last June, she
worked with a focus and dedication rarely seen. She tested different ways to
apply glue to glasses she brought along. She made trips to Pasar Baru to find the right scent for her installation. We visited
several art spaces across Bandung to find a suitable space to present her work
and the black box auditorium at IFI in Bandung is the perfect match. We had
meandering, long talks about ideas dear to her she wants to express through her
art. And in collaboration with Institut Français Indonesia-Bandung, Roma Arts proudly
presents Continuum of Conscious,
Linda Sim Solay’s art installation. Her art installation consists of
elaborately glued together crystal glasses, which have been in her family for
generations, forming a delicate column through which light will flow from the
base to the top and back (light sources and mirrors are at the top and base).
The installation also involves scent and sound elements; for the sound she was
assisted by sound artist Bani Haykal, whom I met at his solo exhibition at the
Substation, Singapore, earlier this year. Linda Sim Solay attempts to create an
open space with little sensory distraction, which – hopefully – makes our
senses more focused. The space can be perceived as a continuum: there are no
starting- or endpoints; light, scent and sound will continuously flow
throughout the space. And a continuum transcends what can be intellectually
analyzed; art, then, can go where our intellect has to halt. Our senses, the
sensual, beauty too, are imminent to appreciating life in general and art in
particular.
Artist statement – Linda Sim Solay – Continuum of
Consciousness
Continuum of Consciousness references the stream of
mind or consciousness, and hereby the continuity of individual and collective
energy over space and time. It may appear as incomprehensible to us that
existence with all information contained herein may indeed be infinite, even
when considering that energy does indeed remain constant. With the stream of
consciousness being said to carry information and awareness of all experience
independent of time, it can be seen as an indefinite pool of historical,
personal and sociological sensations and their resulting knowledge and
awareness. Inspired by this concept as found in various spiritual teachings,
particularly in schools of Hinduism and Buddhism, the installation explores the
experience of sentient awareness of continuous reality beyond faith or system
of belief. It aims to embody an intimate experience of self beyond its
seemingly ephemeral nature, embedding notions of universality, awareness and
ultimate progress and continuous growth. The created space can be perceived as
a continuum, allowing for both focus and contemplation of its personal
experience, without sensory starting- or endpoints. Notably, the very nature of
a continuum lies beyond intellectual analysis.
2012
~ 400x10x10cm
Glass, LED lights, sound, scented seeds
Sound: Bani Haykal
Biography Linda Sim Solay
Linda Sim is a 30-year-old Swedish-Austrian artist,
currently living in Singapore. Her practice in fine art photography and
installation focuses on psychological and philosophical evolutionary thematics
and contemporary science. Her work is orientated around shaping
audience-internal atmosphere, spiritual proximation and potential for perceptive
immersion. After earning her BA in Media Arts from RMIT University Melbourne in
2005 majoring in Fine Art Photography under Dr. Les Walkling, she has exhibited
extensively both in Europe and Australia in over 30 solo, collaborative and
group exhibitions, and has undergone artist residencies and extensive travels
to over 30 countries. Currently studying for her MA at Lasalle College of
the Arts, Singapore, Linda's research on the use of scent in contemporary art
has earned her the Golden Key Asia-Pacific Postgraduate Award as well as the
Lasalle Scholarship. Recently she furthermore received the GK
Visual&Performing Arts Achievement Award for her previous installation
"Timensions" which thematically explores current models in Quantum
Physics and String Theory; developed in collaboration with the Centre for
Quantum Technologies at the University of Singapore.
About Roma Arts
Roma Arts, founded in 2011, promotes passionate,
ambitious and focused ways of producing, presenting, experiencing, and writing
about the diverse forms of arts. Roma Arts gives keen attention to art
practices, forms of presentation, experiencing the arts, and discourses on art.
In 2012, Roma Arts started a residency program to foster creative
person-to-person contacts.
For the e-leaflet see here.
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