School of Creative
Industries
Elyse Lam
Elyse Lam moved to Singapore in 2018 to train as an art therapist with the MA in Art Therapy programme at LASALLE. Prior to that, she held a BA (Hons) Interior and Environmental Design degree from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and worked as a professional interior designer. With her passion in helping vulnerable children, she volunteered as an assistant to an art therapist working with primary school children with special needs at a community centre in Hong Kong. This motivated her to pursue a second career as an art therapist. As an art therapy trainee in Singapore, she has worked with primary school children and seniors in a community hospital. In her free time, Elyse practises watercolour and Chinese ink – where she is able to reconnect with her inner self and express her feelings with every brush stroke and the dynamic diffusion of ink water on rice paper.
Work
Placelessness
Mixed media on washi paper
59 x 84 cm
2021
Placelessness is inspired by the existential concept of being-in-the-world. The map art celebrates the significant moment-to-moment interactions between the artist and the space around her, reflecting her growing connection with diversified culture that was new to her. Originally from Hong Kong, the artist moved to Singapore to pursue her postgraduate training in Art Therapy. Her artwork explores and uncovers the meaning of Placelessness, a sense she felt when she first started living in Singapore. More significantly, through visualising her day-to-day experiences into imagery, it has given life to four Chinese characters ‘心繫我城’, which is to show her gratitude to the past.
Thesis abstract
Articulating the inner voice: art therapy with a preadolescent child, a qualitative single case vignette in Singapore
In response to the dynamic external world with challenges and difficulties, it is worth exploring how art therapy can benefit preadolescent children who are in a transition period between childhood and adolescence. It is vital to give voice to those who may not be heard in different contexts, so as to better understand their inner needs and provide a more holistic approach to each preadolescent child. This paper attempts to explore the significance of play in art therapy when working with a 10-year-old preadolescent in a primary school setting and in ways that individual art therapy might enhance the child to articulate his or her inner voice. Using a qualitative practitioner-based single case study methodology, it illustrates how art therapy provides an alternative form of communication, in which art materials, art-making and artistic expression serve as symbolic speech in the therapeutic process with the 10-year-old preadolescent child. This thesis aims to examine the therapeutic value for preadolescence children within a framework of play in art therapy in a local primary school for facilitating their positive development and growth as a being-in-the-external-world.