Charles Lim

Charles Lim Yi Yong currently lives and works in Singapore. He was a professionally trained sailor, and has competed in the 1996 Olympics representing Singapore and Team China in the 2007 America’s Cup. Later, Lim went to study art in Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design, and has graduated with a BA Fine Art. He also co-founded the seminal net-art collective tsunamii.net. Working across multiple media including photography, video, drawing and performance, Lim has combined his art practice with his consistent interest and extensive research into the maritime environments and histories. Within our cultural imagination, the sea has been endlessly depicted as unoccupiable — commonly expressed through the phrase 「high seas」 — a zone that is thought to be free from the control of any individual nation or state. Article 112 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea states that, All States are entitled to lay submarine cables on bed of high seas. Thus 99% of the world’s internet and international communications runs through cables laid at the bottom of oceans and seas. Deep within the archives of the various parties involved in these endeavours sits a collection of inspection videos of cables covering the length of these networks.