The weaves and leaves of Lenore RS Lim
As her yearlong exhibit at the National Museum of Fine Arts came to a close, printmaker Lenore RS Lim has nothing but gratitude to the institution for the honor of hosting her retrospective show.
An advocate of women’s rights, Lim held her “Leaves, Lace, and Legacy” exhibit from March 22 last year to March 2 this year, a milestone for the celebration of women power, which is marked each year in March, National Women’s Month.
The show, which featured 25 of her works in various types of printmaking, was actually offered by the National Museum to her to honor her and her contributions to Philippine art.
Lim, who obtained her fine arts degree from the University of the Philippines in 1967, is ahead of her time in terms of technology or computer-aided art.
She is a printmaker, art educator, and staunch advocate of environmental protection and women empowerment, which she translates into her art.
Aside from her University of the Philippines education, she studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York in the 1990s and the Blackburn Printmaking Workshop also in New York from 2000 to 2008.
She has likewise exhibited her works in many countries such as Iraq, Jordan, Italy, France, Germany, the United States, and Canada.
She has also been awarded many times by different institutions, notably by the College of the Holy Spirit as one of its 100 Most Outstanding Alumnae during its centennial celebration in 2013, and the Outstanding Professional Awardee for Fine Arts by the University of the Philippines Alumni Association in 2007.
She was also given in 2004 the Pamana ng Pilipino Award, a presidential award given to Filipino individuals and organizations abroad, and was bestowed the Natividad Galang Fajardo Exhibit Award by the Ateneo de Manila Library of Women’s Writings last month.
Innovative
Lim is one of the prime movers in the country for computer-aided art, merging printmaking and photo processing in her works.
Her motifs include but are not limited to, decaying leaves, carefully handcrafted laces, and wedding veils, all representing her advocacies.
The National Museum describes her work as ingrained in the Filipino culture and pleasing in terms of topical dialogue.
“Through recurring motifs of decaying leaves, evocative handmade laces, and ethereal wedding veils, the visual narrative prominent in her works underscores her dedication to nature conservation and maternal traditions deeply embedded in Philippine culture while engaging in meaningful discourse on womanhood and human rights,” it said.
For example, the National Museum said her mixed-media work “Comfort House,” which alludes to the plight of the comfort women during World War II, “acts as a poignant memorial to the suffering and resilience of Filipino comfort women who have suffered abuse from occupying soldiers.”
It is also an artistic cenotaph to these women who, for decades, endured “a lack of support and active revisionism of their experiences by modern society.”
By giving homage to these victims of atrocities during the war, Lim enshrines their harrowing experiences, gives them importance, and allows the viewers of her work to feel the dire and distressing scene.
Advocate
Spending her time in New York where she taught at the United Nations International School; Vancouver, Canada; and the Philippines, Lim, whose full name is Lenore Orosa Raquel-Santos Lim, used to do her art in the evening, juggling motherhood and teaching during daytime.
At the time that she started printmaking, which she studied in New York, there were few women artists engaged in this art form, which involves woodcut, etching, lithography, and silkscreen or serigraphy.
Lim, who is also an advocate of promoting Philippine art and artists abroad, organizes a gathering of Filipino artists in diaspora (Canada and the United States) as well as from the Philippines every two years in Vancouver.
Called “Pagtitipon” or gathering, the event, supported by the Philippine consul-general in British Columbia, is a days-long fellowship and exhibit of works by these artists.
Lim, who has her paternal roots in Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija, and maternal roots in Taal, Batangas, is the niece of World War II heroine Maria Orosa. Her cousin, Joel Orosa Paraiso of San Pablo, Laguna, is also an artist.
When asked about how long it takes for her to finish a work, she would always say, “a lifetime.”
She got into printmaking because, she said, it is more democratic, as a work can be collected by more people.
