Exhibition: SEA STATE 8 seabook | An Art Project by Charles Lim

[Gallery impression, SEA STATE 8 seabook | An Art Project by Charles Lim, Lee Kong Chian Reference Library, 2015]

Presented as part of  Geo|Graphic: Celebrating maps and their stories

Date: 16 Jan - 19 July 2015
Time: 10am - 9pm daily
Venue: National Library Building, Lee Kong Chian Reference Library, Level 11

CLICK TO VIEW GALLERY IMPRESSIONS 

In the various maritime maps produced of Singapore between the 19th century to the present day, Singapore has changed from ‘Singapore Island’ to simply ‘Singapore’ reminding us that contact zones between land and sea remain contested spaces. Seen as an extension of Charles Lim’s solo exhibition at the NUS Museum titled  In Search of Raffles' Light (2013), SEABOOK is conceived as a site for the accumulation of archival materials, anecdotes, and memories that unravel Singapore’s relationship with its sea. Developed with librarians at the National Library Board, the project attempts to bring to the fore materials ranging from pre-Rafflesian artefacts such as maps, charts and manuscripts to the vast archives that were accumulated during the colonial period, as well as the multiple studies that have attempted to grapple the complex and strategic relationship postcolonial Singapore has established with the sea. In effect, SEABOOK aspires to be the most comprehensive cultural study of Singapore’s relationship with the sea to be ever undertaken and is organized using a system called THE GRID, which was developed by now retired Captain Wilson Chua and his team in the 1970s at the then Port of Singapore Authority (today, Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore).

This exhibition is curated by Shabbir Hussain Mustafa and Kenneth Tay; and co-organised by the National Library, Singapore and NUS Museum.

About the artist
Charles Lim Yi Yong is Singapore's representative to the Venice Biennale in 2015, where he will present a project titled SEA STATE,  an ongoing body of works he has been developing since 2008. Lim's 2011 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