Monuments by Ryan Lim Zi Yi
DATE
17 JAN to 28 FEB 2026
VENUE
Shop–House by DECK
4 Lorong 24 Geylang, 398616
ADMISSION
Free
About
Monuments are scattered across the pavement on our long walks home. A discarded puzzle piece, a dead rat, a shoe print fossilized into wet concrete, are lit dimly by a row of street lamps that all turn on at the same time each evening.
These found images are a form of contemporary archaeology, each representing a micro-history revealing tales of loss, love, and meaning embedded in urban life.
In the few moments before and after pavements are restored to their pristine nature, these objects are documented and presented on blocks erected to commemorate each unspectacular event.
Monuments presents an alternative archive of the urban environment through these sculptural images. Perhaps in a hundred years, these impressions will persist as artefacts. Evidence of how life was lived in this moment, how we moved through these spaces, and how meaning accumulated in the most ordinary paths taken home.
These found images are a form of contemporary archaeology, each representing a micro-history revealing tales of loss, love, and meaning embedded in urban life.
In the few moments before and after pavements are restored to their pristine nature, these objects are documented and presented on blocks erected to commemorate each unspectacular event.
Monuments presents an alternative archive of the urban environment through these sculptural images. Perhaps in a hundred years, these impressions will persist as artefacts. Evidence of how life was lived in this moment, how we moved through these spaces, and how meaning accumulated in the most ordinary paths taken home.
Featuring
Ryan Lim Zi Yi
Artist
Ryan Lim Zi Yi (b. 1996, Singapore) explores the quiet rhythms of the unspectacular through his installations of images, sculpture, and text. His practice draws from moments and encounters—what lingers in the background of public and private spaces. Working with ordinary materials and subtle gestures, he reconfigures these traces into narratives and forms that feel both familiar and distant, revealing the unnoticed as tender, uncertain, and worth remembering.
His works have been exhibited internationally, including at Carp Gallery (Taiwan), Plague Space (Russia), and LivingRoom (Netherlands); and in Singapore with Whitestone Gallery, Temporary Unit, DECK, I_S_L_A_N_D_S, Comma Space, Objectifs, DECK. His recent curatorial projects include Robin (2022-2023), a series of exhibitions presented in camping tents pitched in various locations across Singapore.
Currently, he runs a curatorial project titled, BACKYARD, a 7 volume subscription-based publication housing artists reports of happenings around Singapore. BACKYARD is an idea for an art space in the form of a folder.
His works have been exhibited internationally, including at Carp Gallery (Taiwan), Plague Space (Russia), and LivingRoom (Netherlands); and in Singapore with Whitestone Gallery, Temporary Unit, DECK, I_S_L_A_N_D_S, Comma Space, Objectifs, DECK. His recent curatorial projects include Robin (2022-2023), a series of exhibitions presented in camping tents pitched in various locations across Singapore.
Currently, he runs a curatorial project titled, BACKYARD, a 7 volume subscription-based publication housing artists reports of happenings around Singapore. BACKYARD is an idea for an art space in the form of a folder.
