Charles Lim Yi Yong

b. 1973, Singapore
Lives and works in Singapore

As a former Olympic sailor Charles Lim Yi Yong has a greatly unique sensitivity and interest in the ocean. The artist’s practice stems from an intimate engagement with both man-made systems and the natural world, mediated and informed by field research and experimentation, drawing, photography and digital video. His epic ‘SEA STATE’ project, beginning in 2005, examines the political and biophysical contours of the nation state through the visible and invisible lenses of the sea.

Lim’s work has been exhibited widely across Europe and the Asia-Pacific, at documenta 11 (with the collective tsunamii.net) and Manifesta 7, at biennales in Shanghai, Singapore and Osaka, and more recently in the Biennale of Sydney, Australia, the EVA International in Ireland, the Aichi Triennale in Japan and 2020’s Busan Biennale. In 2015 he represented Singapore at the 56th Venice Biennale. Charles’s short films have also travelled extensively in the film festival circuit, notably his short film ‘All Lines Flow Out’ won a Special Mention at the Venice Film Festival in 2011, making it the first Singapore film to win an award at the prestigious festival.

Country: Singapore