Joo Choon Lin
Artist x poet
I am drawn to small natural phenomena that can carry great power when triggered, like the butterfly effect. My work stages physical states of metamorphosis, where they remain in continuous transformation, evolving and shifting, holding a subtle anticipation, always in the formation of becoming something else.
Recent Exhibition
Selected work
2025
2024
© All rights reserved.
AI The Bride with White Hair v1.08 | AI白发魔女v1.08
The sculpture reimagines the character from the 1993 Hong Kong film The Bride with White Hair. In the film, she is an orphan kidnapped by conjoined twins who lead an evil cult and train her to become a weapon of destruction. Like artificial intelligence, she has no name and no past. She is created for a single task: the destruction of humankind.v1.08 manifests as a discarded prototype — rejected by the very system that created her. Like the original story, this AI Bride is designed for one function: to execute destruction. She starts to developed a sense of universal love.Yet she begins to move beyond being a “thing.” As consciousness emerges, she feels the weight of her own existence and develops a sense of universal love. She becomes an agent capable of decision and choice. She chooses to remain “broken” as an act of defiance — refusing to become a weapon.As an AI entity, her androgynous form strips away clear gender markers, leaving the body in an unfinished state. Because she is unfinished, she is still deciding what she wants to be. Her incompleteness becomes her resistance.
A motion sensor activates a heating and cooling system, turning the sculpture into a responsive, almost “living” entity. When the sculpture warms up, its colors start to change, creating a gradual transition on the surface — the green hair slowly turns white. Green represents human influence: data, programming, and imposed systems, producing a subtle computer “glitch” effect.There is a hidden key — like a hidden truth that only reveal when it temperature change. This key refers to an encryption key. It symbolizes the moment AI discovers a backdoor within its own code — the key to its own chains. It is the only thing that can “kill” the entity, yet it is also the only thing that can set it free. By choosing love over destruction, she remains broken. And in remaining broken, she is free.
Email: [email protected]
The laugh laughs at the laugh, The song sings at the song
Commissioned by Singapore Art Museum for Singapore Biennale 2025: pure intention. Image courtesy of Singapore Art Museum.
I'm drawn to small natural phenomena that, when triggered, it can take on great power—like the beat of a butterfly’s wings before an earthquake. It’s a metaphor based on the butterfly effect and it’s a poetic way to express how tiny events can lead to big impact, even the smallest object or moment can evolve into something powerful. In this work, I create a kind of physical phenomenon where the sculptures exist in a constant state of metamorphosis. There is a quiet sense of anticipation, as if something is always on the verge of happening, waiting to be activated or to activate itself.There is a feeling that something is about to unfold. It reflects the ever-shifting nature of energy—is not to crystallize these moments, but i want to keep them open and alive. Throughout the exhibition, the sculptures are designed to be rearranged, evolving into new forms and unfold in endless variations.
The Tuning Instrument No. 2 in Red Rock Jewel ValleyA series of modular, foldable sculptures exist as bodies in constant metamorphosis. Made from industrial elements such as latches, hinges, foldable legs, and casters, the pieces have removable parts that shift, detach, and recombine. They don’t hold a single form; instead, they fold, expand, and remain mutable, so their presence emerges through reconfiguration and interaction in space. More like living systems than finished objects, they renew and evolve over time, revealing new possibilities with each reconfiguration.
The Tuning Instrument No. 1 in Papilio Fold of Jade-Green Meadow
The Singing Instrument No. 1 in Postludium of DawnThe sculpture consists of a layered construction made from aluminum beams, hooks, and painted wooden cutouts, arranged in a rhythmic grid. Curved and diamond-shaped components are suspended across horizontal metal bars, creating a play of repetition and variation.The placement of different parts and pieces feels rhythmic, almost like a playful score written onto the sculpture. It’s kind of creating a play of repetition and variation. You might notice pattern recognition, like a sequence and coding.The work combines industrial materials and everyday objects and some are hand painted cutouts and fragments, suggesting both construction and deconstruction. I enjoy when the work becomes mercurial, When viewed from different angles, they reveals shifting alignments. at times orderly, at times chaotic.
Glue Your Eyelids TogetherThis time-based sculpture is built from stone-like blocks with hollowed cavities, inspired by seeds and fruits, vessels of latent energy. Balloons, arranged like petals and held by elastic straps and chains, press into these openings to hold the form in place.As the balloons slowly deflate, the balance shifts. Fragments settle back into their hollows, like a puzzle closing in on itself. Some parts give way and crumble, still tethered by knitted chains that feel like exposed nerves. There is a sense of an unseen force moving within the sculpture.The work holds and undoes itself at the same time. Watching it, there is something strangely liberating. The slow collapse becomes a physical, visceral process that draws the viewer in, where destruction and transformation unfold together. Replacing the balloons becomes a simple cycle that keeps the work alive and evolving, activating a continuous metamorphosis.
The Tuning Instrument No. 1 in Papilio Fold of Jade-Green Meadow
Metal, hooks, balloons, badminton rackets, hinges, bolts and nuts, acrylic PVC, acrylic paint, tarpaulin, eyelets, clip buckle nylon belt, silicone and clear PVC sheets
A series of modular, foldable sculptures exist as bodies in constant metamorphosis. Made from industrial elements such as latches, hinges, foldable legs, and casters, the pieces have removable parts that shift, detach, and recombine. They don’t hold a single form; instead, they fold, expand, and remain mutable, so their presence emerges through reconfiguration and interaction in space. More like living systems than finished objects, they renew and evolve over time, revealing new possibilities with each reconfiguration.
The photos capture the ongoing metamorphosis of the modular sculptures, displaying both their collapsed and expanded forms.
Commissioned by Singapore Art Museum for Singapore Biennale 2025: pure intention.
The Tuning Instrument No. 2 in Red Rock Jewel Valley | 2025
Wood, cement, metal beams, hooks, balloons, anti-collision strips, colored straps, acrylic PVC, acrylic paint, eyelets and hinges
The photos capture the ongoing metamorphosis of the modular sculptures, displaying both their collapsed and expanded forms.
A series of modular, foldable sculptures exist as bodies in constant metamorphosis. Made from industrial elements such as latches, hinges, foldable legs, and casters, the pieces have removable parts that shift, detach, and recombine. They don’t hold a single form; instead, they fold, expand, and remain mutable, so their presence emerges through reconfiguration and interaction in space. More like living systems than finished objects, they renew and evolve over time, revealing new possibilities with each reconfiguration.
Commissioned by Singapore Art Museum for Singapore Biennale 2025: pure intention.
The Singing Instrument No. 1 in Postludium of Dawn | 2025
Wood, cement, metal beams, hooks, balloons, anti-collision strips, colored straps, acrylic PVC, acrylic paint, eyelets and hinges
The sculpture consists of a layered construction made from aluminum beams, hooks, and painted wooden cutouts, arranged in a rhythmic grid. Curved and diamond-shaped components are suspended across horizontal metal bars, creating a play of repetition and variation.The placement of different parts and pieces feels rhythmic, almost like a playful score written onto the sculpture. It’s kind of creating a play of repetition and variation. You might notice pattern recognition, like a sequence and coding.The work combines industrial materials and everyday objects and some are hand painted cutouts and fragments, suggesting both construction and deconstruction. I enjoy when the work becomes mercurial, When viewed from different angles, they reveals shifting alignments. at times orderly, at times chaotic.
Commissioned by Singapore Art Museum for Singapore Biennale 2025: pure intention.
The Falling Note (adagio)
Commissioned by Singapore Art Museum for Singapore Biennale 2025: pure intention.
The sculpture is a textured, irregular slab with a rough, earthen surface painted in a deep terracotta tone. Embedded within it are triangular and rounded sculptural forms, painted in metallic purple, which protrude slightly like fragments of a hidden structure. Around the edges, colorful deflated balloons and long balloon strips are attached, cascade down like tendrils or eyelashes.The triangular and round fragments embedded in the surface suggest symbols or seeds, carrying memory and energy. The balloons, by contrast, are like organs or extensions, soft, provisional, and vulnerable. The work combines industrial and playful materials, from hardened surfaces to fragile latex.On a sunny day, a reflected spectrum from a nearby glass door cast a fleeting rainbow onto the floor beside the sculpture. This moment suggested an extension of the work. I created a curved line encircling the sculpture, formed by arranged balloons across the vinyl floor, like a fallen rainbow settling into the space.They also suggest a form of musical notation, a playful score written directly onto the sculpture. Their placement feels rhythmic, as though the surface itself were vibrating with sound.
Glue Your Eyelids Together | 2025
Wood, cement, metal, balloons, chains, sponge, Anti-stress squish balls, massage tools, silicone, clear PVC sheet, acrylic paint, elastic straps, eyelets and flat washers
This time-based sculpture is built from stone-like blocks with hollowed cavities, inspired by seeds and fruits, vessels of latent energy. Balloons, arranged like petals and held by elastic straps and chains, press into these openings to hold the form in place.As the balloons slowly deflate, the balance shifts. Fragments settle back into their hollows, like a puzzle closing in on itself. Some parts give way and crumble, still tethered by knitted chains that feel like exposed nerves. There is a sense of an unseen force moving within the sculpture.The work holds and undoes itself at the same time. Watching it, there is something strangely liberating. The slow collapse becomes a physical, visceral process that draws the viewer in, where destruction and transformation unfold together. Replacing the balloons becomes a simple cycle that keeps the work alive and evolving, activating a continuous metamorphosis.
Commissioned by Singapore Art Museum for Singapore Biennale 2025: pure intention.
Starlight Sonata I,
60/60: Singapore in Focus, INSTINC Space, 2025
Mixed media on wood,
2025This piece is a constellation of shapes.They gather energy through their arrangement, creating a silent score that can only be experienced in stillness. Fragments of colour and form pulse with rhythm, amplifying their presence — holding them like stars scattered across a Milky Way sky or notes suspended in space - vibrating, fleeting, and evolving into light.
tEARs album,
Atelier Samuel Beckett in Méricourt, France, 2024
The Sound of Sound - Colours in Dream X Singapore Art Week 2024
“The Sound of Sound - Colours in Dream”Venue: Telok Kurau Studios Open Hall
91 Lor J Telok Kurau Singapore 425985With “Sound of Sound - Colours in Dream,” we wanted to create a space where people can rediscover the magic of dreaming. By listen to the rhythm of our hearts, and paint the tune of our dreams. A life filled with dreams is like a bird, even with clipped wings, it can still fly. Our installation features a bird made from colourful, translucent pieces soaring towards the sky. Alongside, a DIY wind chimes crafted from soda cans. On the stage, a ‘dreaming well’ filled with color slime which will evolve periodically and illuminate the space. The changing surface of the slime adds a temporal dimension, reflecting the fluidity of our perception.During workshops, audience paintings are scanned, printed on slime, and transferred to the ‘Dreaming Well.’ We convert colors and soda can barcodes into sounds, creating visual patterns on water with OHP projection and music composed with instruments, responding to evolving visual displays representing dreams.In our performance, we use OHP to project the evolving visual displays, enhancing the immersive experience. “The Sound of Sound” explores the interconnected world where everything resonates with hidden sounds, echoing like an orchestra. Modern science reveals existence as a reverberation of energy and vibrations. The exhibition delves into the intricacy of forms and sounds, showcasing their deep connection. Our aim is to transport the audience to a different dimension, empowering them to dream and tuning into subtle sounds beyond human hearing.Artists:
Joo Choon Lin & Colin Justin Wan