Off the Face of the Earth is a record of my attempt at self-erasure. Standing in front of a fixed camera with a singular light source at night, I walked backwards to gradually lose illumination until my central figure completely fades into the background.
This calculated set-up and distancing achieves a physical illusion of disappearance, leaving us a dark horizon of nothingness. The act of vanishing, with its mediation between utter irrationality and suicide, aptly captures my desire to escape from our increasingly alien world.
People rushing, faces, already anxious, jaded and eyes focused yet glazed over - Who are we? What happened to our awareness? Where exactly are we going? Through my practice, I try to make sense of my personal observations and construct a language that expresses my frustration with this situation.
Employing strategic appropriation of found objects, animatronic techniques, and exploiting the cyclical nature of motors, I create environments and objects which are to some degree autonomous or disembodied, questioning the benefits of progress while embracing concepts of slowness and futility.
Lim Zeharn (b. 1999) is a Singaporean artist whose works range from designed objects to kinetic and video installations. He employs wit and absurdity to respond to familiar conditions of modern living such as mundanity, exhaustion and instability.
Zeharn has participated in many group exhibitions internationally including Modern Panic VIII in London and most recently, A.void as part of Polyphony: Southeast Asia in China. He has also served as curator and initiated several independent arts-related projects since 2015. For his work, Zeharn was named finalist in the IMPART Awards 2019.
