Redefining the Archaic : The Art of Lim Tze Peng
Redefining the Archaic: The Art of Lim Tze Peng
“Redefining the Archaic: The Art of Lim Tze Peng” will be held fon 28th of July 2018. The Guest of Honour Mdm Halimah Yacob, the President of the Republic of Singapore, will officiate at the launch of the exhibition. A fundraising event to raise $500,000 for the President’s Challenge and Sian Chay Medical Institution will be held in conjunction with the launch. The President’s Challenge and Sian Chay Medical Institution will each receive $250,000.
Mr. Melvin Poh, Organising Committee Chairman of ” Redefining the Archaic: The Art of Lim Tze Peng “, Founder and Managing Director of the Fission Group, said that, “Firstly this is to honour Mr. Lim Tze Peng as well as recognise his contributions to Singapore society. Secondly, it is to raise funds for the President’s Challenge and Sian Chay Medical Institution.”
He also shared that, “There are many kinds of charity, some are genuine charities, some are fake charities. Mr. Toh Soon Huat, Chairman of Sian Chay Medical Institution, is a friend of mine for many years. His dedication to charity is evident to all and I admire him very much for his spirit of selfless devotion without renumeration. He is a role model for me to learn from. I also appreciate the humane services that Sian Chay Medical Institution provides to the residents. My wife and I are only doing small part and hoping to bring more successful friends to support charity, with money or efforts to shoulder our social responsibility.”
The exhibition of “Redefining the Archaic: The Art of Lim Tze Peng” will include most of the artworks of Mr. Lim Tze Peng’s artistic career in the past 70 years. It also allows us to understand his artistic ideas and pay our tribute to him through his artworks. In 1981, after Lim Tze Peng retiring as Principal of Xinmin Primary School, he became a full-time painter. With his nostalgic sentiments, he focused on exploring Singapore’s landscape ink painting and innovative traditional calligraphy concepts, and his artworks also earned him the admiration and love from the academic circles and art community. In 2003, Lim Tze Peng was conferred the Singapore Cultural Medallion Award by the Singapore government. In 2016, he again conferred the Meritorious Service Medal to recognize his contributions to the Singapore art community.
Over 60 masterpieces of Lim Tze Peng will be elaborately introduced in the exhibition. These artworks are the most beautiful presentations of his art career since the 1960s, including his oil paintings from the 1960s to the 2000s, the landscape paintings of Kampung and old days Singapore from the 1970s to the 1980s and 2009-2013, a series of life paintings during his trips in Bali and Paris from the 1990s to the mid-2000s, the semi-abstract ink and oil paintings from the mid-2000’s to the early 2000’s, and the calligraphy works since the mid-2000’s.
In this exhibition, several works will be displayed in public for the first time, including the colour calligraphy works recently completed by Lim Tze Peng. Two large-scale abstract tree paintings, including the largest size of “Untitled 21 (Tree)” (264.2 x 538.5 cm), will be the focus of this exhibition.
Mr. Lim Tze Peng is an artist who cares about the country and the people. He often says to people around him, “I would not be who I am today without the support of Singapore.” The theme of the home country also occupies a large part of his works. With art as a brush and love to the motherland as the colour, he presents to the people the beautiful country in his heart. Meanwhile, he is also a philanthropist involved in numerous charity activities. He also has a deep friendship with Mr. Toh Soon Huat, Chairman of Sian Chay Medical Institution, and has participated in numerous charity auctions for Sian Chay.
Sian Chay Medical Institution is a voluntary welfare organization with a history of over 100 years. It aims at advocating healthy lifestyle and blissful living, serving the society with selfless devotion, providing free TCM consultation and subsidized treatment. It is also dedicated to promoting racial harmony and social stability through the platform of Sian Chay. Everyone should cherish the social civilization, social progress and social stability. Everyone should care for each other, live in harmony, and build Singapore into a country of prosperity, universal love and empathy.
Sian Chay was established over 100 years ago. Since 2008 when Mr. Toh Soon Huat assumed Chairmanship, with the support of the public and the dedication of the Directors and management, the century-old Sian Chay has been rejuvenated with new vitality. Within a few years, Sian Chay has grown into a charity network with 15 branches serving over 1,200 patients daily and supported 4 wellness centres visited by 10,000 residents yearly. (The senior citizens holding PG card can enjoy full waiver of medical charges, and the families with needs can also apply for waiver of medical charges.) Sian Chay has received unanimous recognition and praises from the patients and benevolent people in the society.
At present, Sian Chay Medical Institution has about 100 employees. In the past four years (2014 to 2017), Sian Chay has served about 980,000 patient visits and dispensed 1.81 million dosages of prescription. In the next five years (2018-2022), the forecasted patient visits is 2.5 million, and the dosages of prescription will be 4.8 million.
Every donation of $10 can benefit a patient from a low-income family to enjoy free consultation and medicine at Sian Chay Medical Institution; Helping one patient equals to helping all the family members in relief from the pain and gain the happiness. We hope we can share the Sian Chay TCM charity platform with more people, inspiring more people to work with Sian Chay, to do more charitable deeds, to contribute back to society and benefit people, and create a harmonious and pleasant social atmosphere!
Sian Chay actively participates in community charity events, promotes health awareness, and encourages health care activities. We also plan to offer Chinese language classes to non-Chinese residents. We widely distribute leaflets in four official languages for the non-Chinese residents to learn about Sian Chay, enjoy Sian Chay’s services, and appreciate Chinese culture. We should communicate with each other, interact with each other, share resources, to foster racial harmony and create a harmonious society. Sian Chay has gained recognition from not only the residents but also people from all walks of life, through the charity activities such as arranging for professional hairdressers to offer regular haircut for the elderly at the branches, inviting renowned people to conduct fine arts classes for the community, distributing goodie bags and etc.
Chairman Toh Soon Huat said, ” We cannot determine the length of our lifespan, but we can determine its depth and make it more meaningful. We should change and improve ourselves at every moment, every occurrence, every experience and every obstacle of the life, so as to make ourselves distinctive from others and benefit the people around us.”
Helping one person is equivalent to helping his family. When any of the family members gets sick, the mood of the whole family will be affected. Our mission is to help the patients stay away from suffering, relieve pain, create a healthy and happy family, and a harmonious society. And this is the charity spirit that Sian Chay has always upheld: Trust, Action, Attitude and Conduct forms the integrity and virtues of charity work.
Sian Chay has been promoting the core values of “Forgiveness, Universal Love, Compassion, Gratitude and Blessing” and integrated them into the daily code of conduct for everyone. Sian Chay advocates the belief that “From the society, For the society. To take care of the disadvantaged groups, with labor or funds. Wishing everyone to work together for contributing to charity cause within one’s efforts.” Because we know that “Nation Progresses, Family Prospers; Family Harmony, Successful Endeavours. Forward with the Nation, Bonding with the People.’ This can a better society .”
Sian Chay is looking forward to the assistance, participation and support of the benevolent people from all walks of life. We wish the exhibition ” Redefining the Archaic: The Art of Lim Tze Peng ” an overwhelming success!