He kept his promise to art Reprinted with the kind permission of "The Business Times, Friday, 7th October 2005

 

Lim Joo Hong tells PARVATHI NAYAR why he gave up a top job for a career in art

It is rare to hear of a successful CEO who gives up the security of corporate life - and all its attendant perks - to fulfill his artistic dreams. But that is the less travelled path chosen by 51-year-old Lim Joo Hong, former CEO, Singapore Computer Systems Ltd. One result of this new path will be seen this month, when Lim mounts his first-ever solo exhibition, where he displays digital prints. A less tangible - but no less satisfying - result is that Lim is now a man who looks forward to Mondays.

Lim's life was always one torn between the pragmatics of science and the creative possibilities of the arts. In school he was in the science stream, but did art for his '0' levels - and did well. Next, he wanted to study architecture, but a much- needed scholarship from the Public Service Commission found him reading engineering at Oxford instead. A subsequent Masters in Computing Science at Dartmouth College also saw him carve out time to do night classes in printmaking in New York, and courses in oil painting and photography in Rhode Island.

The US experience was to shape the Lim family in many ways: for Lim himself, it was the printmaking foundation that lies at the basis of his upcoming solo; for his wife Jessie it was a chance introduction to the world of ceramics that she continues to inhabit as one of Singapore's successful ceramic artists; and for them together, it marked the birth of the first of their three daughters.

Back home in Singapore, it was payback time, for the two scholar ships that funded Lim's studies. "I had to serve out my bonds and for get some of the artistic dreams," he remembers, a touch wistfully. He moved into the private sector, changed jobs and took several months off in between to work on his art. The temptation to stay with the art was strong, but a mixture of circumstances - the birth of a child, self-doubts about not being good enough, the stability of good jobs - took him back into the workforce.

"But I promised myself that before I was 50, I would stop the commercial work and do art." He kept his word; some two years ago he quit as CEO of Singapore Computer Systems Ltd, a company that specialises in systems integration. In one sense it was not easy to give up running a $500 million-turnover-a-year company with 1,000 staff, the chauffeur-driven Merc, the country clubs, or indeed, the sense of achievement that comes with doing a job well. Lim recalls with pride how his team had an operation up and running within 48 hours during the Sars tragedy to track and monitor the disease.

Yet, on balance, "I don't miss it, apart from some aspects like the human interaction. I never use the word 'retire'; I see art as a new career, and hope to have some 20 good years ahead of me. I have a routine and keep 'office hours' with my art, beginning after breakfast and continuing till dinner time." Weekends are usually given over to familial and social obligations.

Lim's artistic interests originated in charcoal, watercolours, then Chinese ink painting, but currently the work revolves around two axes: oil paints and digital prints. The impetus for the former can traced back to the wonderfully weathered road safety sign from China that occupies pride of place in his home. Inspired by the sign's rich surfaces created by the vagaries of nature, Lim's abstract paintings are created from titanium white paint applied over natural rusting process that happens to steel plates left outdoors.

As for the prints, their starting points are both his own drawings and materials with great textures like old gilt paper; these scanned into the computer and manipulated to create images that are printed using archival material a top-of-the-line Epson printer launched only last month. A nice link here, one suggests, between his former professional life and his artistic side.

"Sitting in front of computer and playing with images indeed a pleasure.' he replies with a smile." The computer allows me to assemble different visual elements together like a digital collage; it powerful tool that breaks many boundaries." He adds that it has taken him a year and a half of intensive creative and technical work to create the prints for the solo show.

That Lim has made the right career decisions is obvious, first in the commitment he displays to art. And equally by the fact come Sunday night, instead of resignation/dread that grips the many in the workforce, Lim thinks how great it is that the next day is Monday. That it is the beginning of another creative week, spent in the company of his images and their infinite possibilities.