Macaron-shaped baby faces, dumplings filled with miniature human heads and bodily organs nestled in a bun – welcome to the world of Qixuan Lim, better known as Qimmyshimmy. The Singaporean artist is creatively known for her striking sculptures that are creepy yet strangely captivating and cute all at once. Her three-dimensional artworks often see representations of babies, food and sweets combined with morbid connotations of bodily organs and disjointed infant limbs.
Qixuan crafts the 3D pieces during her free time at her home studio. Her miniature sculptures, which are described by many as "creepy-cute", create thought-provoking conversations between people. She loves to shock people with her signature sculptures that have a touch of macabre, and her openness to criticism and celebration of divided opinions highlight her mission to make art come alive.
We caught up with Qimmyshimmy to talk about her creative process. Continue reading for our full interview with the artist.
You term yourself as an “accidental sculptor.” What inspired you to get into sculpting?
I won’t call it a business. It’s more of a practice, and a way for me to escape into my own little world! I call myself an “accidental sculptor” because it was not something I intended to do when I started my creative journey. Everything that I know about sculpting was self-taught. I was experimenting with many different kinds of art forms growing up, but was never really able to find my personal style until I discovered sculpting. Sculpting gives my ideas a tactility and dimension that I am not able to achieve through illustration or painting.
What are the pros and cons of working from home that you’ve experienced during the pandemic?
Pros—all the time I save from not having to travel to work, and working in my PJs! I hate thinking about what to wear everyday. The downside is that I am driving myself to be productive every minute, and that can be so unhealthy.
Working from home made me realize how important the “in-between” times are for me. I get a lot of my inspiration while day-dreaming on a long bus ride, people watching, having serendipitous conversations, and just being out experiencing everything life offers. Some mornings I get out of bed really missing how things were before—I am sure many feel the same.
Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.
Your artworks are a combination of miniature human body parts and food motifs. How did this idea come about? Also, what do you hope for people to experience when they view your works?
I like capturing the tension of the beautiful and the grotesque in my works. Food is an effective subject because of the ways advertising and the media have propagated it for centuries to appeal to our senses. Food has always been portrayed to be desirable and enticing, and being able to turn that familiarity into something else, has always been central to my work.
Describe how your sculptures are made and the materials you use for creating them. On average, how long do you take to complete a piece of art?
I use polymer clay, which is an oven-baked clay. They are quite clean and easy to work with, and suitable for smaller scale works. I usually spend a few days to a week on a sculpture, but it really depends! The actual execution usually takes a few days, but it is the conceptualising, experimenting and understanding of materials to perfect a piece that can really stretch that time frame to complete a work.
What perspective do you find in challenging and provoking society by presenting artworks that make people feel uncomfortable?
Contrary to what many might think, I have never sought to challenge or provoke others with my work. It was only after my works gained traction online that I realised how polarising my works can be. I love this quote by Cezar A Cruz “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” People online are so quick to judge whatever they see online these days. Being uncomfortable about something isn’t always a bad thing, but I feel that it is more important to have these conversations with people who see things differently from you.
Your works have stirred quite a reaction online. Do you think they have a misunderstanding about your art that you would like to address and correct?
I believe when artists put their works out in the open, we need to embrace the fact that our art would be interpreted and understood in ways that we do not intend them to be. It is not in my right or control to change how people think.
When it comes to your artwork, what are some things you wish to explore in the future?
Definitely something more spatial! I feel that so many things are happening online nowadays, and art experiences have been going digital due to the pandemic. If I had all the time and money in the world, I would love to work on something spatial and really fun, just to break the monotony.
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