Situated on the second floor of the newly restored Sale d’Armi building in the Arsenale, facing a shipyard, the Singapore Pavilion presents SEA STATE, an exhibition by artist Charles Lim Yi Yong and curator Shabbir Hussain Mustafa. SEA STATE is a multimedia project in nine parts, initiated in 2005 by artist and former Olympic sailor Charles Lim with the premise of inverting perceptions of sea and land on the island of Singapore. It explores the biophysical, political and psychic contours of the Southeast Asian city-state, through the visible and invisible lenses of the sea. The project’s structure is inspired by the World Meteorological Organization’s code for measuring sea conditions, which numbers the varying states ranging from calm, to moderate, to the phenomenal.
Walking into the pavilion, one feels as if they have entered a busy dock, hearing the sound of the waves, until being ultimately astounded by the large algae-covered buoy installation in the centre of the exhibition. On the walls, we see video installations, one featuring vertical panoramas of people in the shipyard, the other, a tranquil documentation of the surface of the ocean, and another showing footage of construction workers in tunnels under the sea. Another installation, compromised of a video of a man speaking sadly, surrounded by framed maps resting on the wall, next to a miniature sculpture of Singapore’s ocean floor.
Personally, I was especially interested in this pavilion and visited it a few times because of the similarities between the United Arab Emirates and Singapore. Both are small, wealthy, young countries, which experienced rapid evolution in economy and landscape in the past few decades. Also, both have undergone the building of artificial land during that time. I found this comparison intriguing because it transforms the artwork from being personal to only Singapore, into something us Emiratis relate to and experience closely as well.
Shaikha Al Ketbi is a senior Visual Arts student at Zayed University, Abu Dhabi. Aspiring to become a curator, Shaikha can spend hours on end viewing art and touring museums. She also enjoys photography, and you will almost always find her sketching something. Keep up with her on Instagram on @veniceinterns and on hashtags #veniceinterns and @uaeinvenice.
