Charles Lim Yi Yong: SEA STATE, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, 30 April – 10 July 2016, installation view. Courtesy of NTU CCA Singapore.
Exhibition
 

SEA STATE examines the biophysical, political and psychic contours of Singapore through the visible and invisible lenses of the sea.

Charles Lim Yi Yong: SEA STATE

30 April - 10 July 2016

SEA STATE by artist Charles Lim Yi Yong, commissioned for the Singapore Pavilion for the 56th Venice Biennale and curated by Shabbir Hussain Mustafa, will be presented at the NTU CCA Singapore from 30 April to 10 July 2016. For over a decade, Lim’s ongoing project SEA STATE examines the biophysical, political and psychic contours of Singapore through the visible and invisible lenses of the sea. SEA STATE is an in-depth inquiry by an artist that scrutinises both man-made systems, opening new perspectives on our everyday surroundings, from unseen landscapes and disappearing islands to the imaginary boundaries of a future landmass.

SEA STATE pubic programmes

First held at the Palazzo Franchetti on the occasion of the Singapore Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale, the symposium The Geopolitical and the Biophysical: a structured conversation on Art and Southeast Asia in context will continue and expand upon the debate with a second iteration at NTU CCA Singapore during Lim’s exhibition on 17 and 18 June 2016.

The Geopolitical and the Biophysical: a structured conversation on Art and Southeast Asia in context, Part II symposium

The presentation of SEA STATE and the symposium The Geopolitical and the Biophysical: a structured conversation on Art and Southeast Asia in context, Part II held at NTU CCA Singapore are generously supported by the Ministry of Culture, Community & Youth, National Arts Council Singapore and the Singapore Tourism Board.

Images
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Charles Lim Yi Yong: SEA STATE, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, 30 April – 10 July 2016, installation view. Courtesy of NTU CCA Singapore.
Charles Lim Yi Yong: SEA STATE, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, 30 April – 10 July 2016, installation view. Courtesy of NTU CCA Singapore.
Charles Lim Yi Yong: SEA STATE, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, 30 April – 10 July 2016, installation view. Courtesy of NTU CCA Singapore.
Charles Lim Yi Yong: SEA STATE, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, 30 April – 10 July 2016, installation view. Courtesy of NTU CCA Singapore.
Charles Lim Yi Yong: SEA STATE, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, 30 April – 10 July 2016, installation view. Courtesy of NTU CCA Singapore.
Charles Lim Yi Yong: SEA STATE, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, 30 April – 10 July 2016, installation view. Courtesy of NTU CCA Singapore.
Charles Lim Yi Yong: SEA STATE, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, 30 April – 10 July 2016, installation view. Courtesy of NTU CCA Singapore.
Charles Lim Yi Yong: SEA STATE, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, 30 April – 10 July 2016, installation view. Courtesy of NTU CCA Singapore.
Charles Lim Yi Yong: SEA STATE, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, 30 April – 10 July 2016, installation view. Courtesy of NTU CCA Singapore.
Charles Lim Yi Yong: SEA STATE, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, 30 April – 10 July 2016, installation view. Courtesy of NTU CCA Singapore.
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Collateral for Charles Lim Yi Yong: SEA STATE

Over 12,000 assets documenting our exhibitions, residencies, programmes and research available at the CCA Digital Archive.

Contributors
Charles Lim
Charles Lim
Artist-in-Residence
Singapore

Charles Lim (b. 1973, Singapore) sees Singapore like no other artist. As a former professional sailor, his senses are keenly attuned to environments we rarely see and to forces most of us do not even notice. His early collaborative project, tsunamii.net, which participated in dOCUMENTA 11 (2002) traced the hidden submarine infrastructure that underpins our global computer networks. After sailing for Singapore in the 1996 Olympics, Lim studied Fine Art at Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design, London, graduating in 2001. His SEA STATE series is an ongoing body of work that has been exhibited at the Dojima River Biennale, Osaka, Japan (2013); Lyon Biennial Rendez-Vous 13 at the Institut d’art contemporain Villeurbanne, France (2013); the Singapore Biennale (2011); Manifesta 7, Trentino-South Tyrol, Italy (2008); Shanghai Biennale (2008). Lim’s moving image works have been screened in international film festivals at Rotterdam, Tribeca and Edinburgh. His multi-award-winning short film, All The Lines Flow Out, premiered at the 68th Venice Film Festival, winning a Special Mention, the first award ever won there by a Singaporean production.

Ute Meta Bauer
Ute Meta Bauer
Curator, Founding Director
Singapore

Ute Meta Bauer is a Professor at the School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University Singapore (NTU). She is currently the Acting Director and Principal Research Fellow at the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore (NTU CCA Singapore); and is the Chair of the Masters in Museum Studies and Curatorial Practices (MA MSCP) programme. Having served as the Founding Director of NTU CCA Singapore for over a decade, her work as educator and curator over the past years has focused on Climates. Habitats. Environments. At the Centre, she curated and co-curated The Oceanic (2017/2018), Trees of Life. Knowledge in Material (2018), and The Posthuman City (2020). In 2022, she served as curator for the Singapore Pavilion at the 59th Biennale di Venezia, featuring artist Shubigi Rao. Her recent large scale projects include the 17th Istanbul Biennial (2022), co-curated alongside David Teh and Amar Kanwar, and the artistic direction of the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale 2024. She is a Trustee of the Art Foundation TBA21 and a member of the Governing Council of n.b.k. Berlin. Bauer was recently conferred an Honorary Doctorate of Art and Design by Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Helsinki, Finland.