Marrying Science and Art

From the beginning of her artistic career, science and art were for Lin always inextricably linked, and she often incorporated elements from the scientific world into her works even as she experimented with abstract art. During the 1970s and 1980s, you will notice that computing became a central motif in her work. Paintings like Distillation of an Apple and The Computer As Architect were described by Lin as anticipating the birth of the Apple I computer in the former, and the advent of Computer-aided Design, or CAD, in the latter. She also paid homage to the LOTUS 1-2-3 programme that predated Microsoft Excel, with her painting Man Machine Dialogue. Astronomy and space exploration were another source of fascination, and Lin frequented planetariums and observatories. This interest led to the creation of a series called Man and his Universe, which explores humankind’s relationship to our solar system and outer space. Incidentally, you may notice that the exhibition environment has been designed as a darkened room, as if one were entering a black hole in outer space and held by the artist’s gravitational pull. The paintings mimic the rocky nature of celestial bodies and galactic dust or gaseous clouds. If you take a closer look at these paintings, you will notice that they feature heavily textured surfaces with lama paper, cut jute and canvas applied on top, but at the same time coexist with delicate washes of paint. Abstract representations of her methodical examinations of space, sound and light feature heavily in Lin’s paintings in the 1970s, like Son et Lumiere—3D. That work depicts her indelible experience of witnessing one of the daily sound and laser light shows at the ancient architectural structures of the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. The painting also won her the inaugural Tan Tsze Chor prize in 1979, awarded by the Singapore Art Society.