Lighting designer Lim Woan Wen
“Light is like a religion to me. It’s a faith and an anchor in my work as well as my life.”~ Lim Woan Wen on receiving the Young Artist Award in 2011
Dubbed a “lighting designer whiz” by local theatre critic Mayo Martin, Lim Woan Wen has been lighting theatre, dance and cross-disciplinary projects for over a decade. A graduate from the National University of Singapore’s Theatre Studies programme, she received the National Arts Council (NAC) Arts Professional Scholarship in 2001 and went on to train in stage lighting design at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.
Woan Wen has won multiple accolades for her lighting designs. She is a recipient of the 2011 NAC Young Artist Award for artistic excellence in Theatre and has won the Straits Times Life! Theatre Award for Best Lighting Design no less than 5 times.
Woan Wen divides her time between freelance lighting design projects, working with The Finger Players as their associate lighting designer, and making design-centric installations and performances as one-third of the design collective INDEX.
Check out Woan Wen’s online portfolio of her past work here.
Bitesize interview with Centre 42 (19 May 2015)
Woan Wen sheds some light on her foray into this field of theatre design, and about her latest work with the Centre The Vault: 3.1 In/Visibility.
Light matters
In 2012, Woan Wen presented her first independent solo show Light Matters 《拾 光》 at The Chapel at Sculpture Square. A site-specific and time-based installation made in collaboration with the sun, the project was born from the desire to work directly with her greatest source of inspiration – natural light – as a medium of expression.
- View a footage of Light Matters 《拾 光》 (2012):
- An extract of a review of Light Matters 《拾 光》 (2012):
“如果是影评、剧评，我说到这里，应该会被想看却还没去看的观众所枪杀。不过此即这场光演的特别之处。因为太过抽象了，我的文字只能捕风掠影，每一个观众透过他的心眼，去窥视、透视、正视、仰视，光的面貌。甚至有一位小妹妹说，透过菀雯的光，她第一次看到了风。而我，透过菀雯的光，在水晶球充当了旁观者，静观光和反射体制造魔术。可算是略略体会到光的生命力之所在。” – Source: A review by Chen Weibiao posted on the Light Matters Facebook page
[Translation: If this were a review of a film or play, I would have been shot by audience members who haven’t seen it yet for giving too much away. But this light performance is special. Because it’s so abstract, my words cannot do justice to the experience. Every audience member will see and interpret the light differently. A little girl even said she saw wind for the first time in Woan Wen’s light. As for me, I was only a spectator of the magic created by Woan Wen’s light installation. And I brieftly caught a glimpse of the splendour of light.]
A selection of recent projects
“If you want something badly enough and if you make it happen, things will fall into place.”
~ Lim Woan Wen on a career as a lighting designer
| 2015 | The Vault: #3.1 In/Visibility By Centre 42 |
| 2015 | Off Centre By Esplanade’s The Studios: fifty The published play is available for browsing in Book Den. |
| 2014 | Rant and Rave By The Finger Players The published play is available for browsing in Book Den. |
| 2013 | Twelve Angry Men By Nine Years Theatre |
| 2012 | Light Matters 《拾 光》 By Lim Woan Wen |
| 2012 | The Book of Living and Dying By The Finger Players Information about this production is available in The Repository. The published play is available for browsing in Book Den |
| 2011 | The Weight of Silk on Skin By W!ld Rice & Checkpoint Theatre Information about this production is available in The Repository |
| 2010 | – Invisibility/Breathing By Cake Theatrical Productions Information about this production is available in The Repository |
By Daniel Teo
Published on 20 May 2015
