Imperceptible: machine, animal, plant, stone, skull

Text by Joseph Daniel Valencia published in exhibition catalog

How does the notion of “ghost” reveal new ways of thinking about time, becoming, and witnessing? This is a chief concern of Imperceptible: machine, animal, plant, stone, skull (2021), the MFA thesis exhibition by artist Hings Lim. The idea of ghosts, as imperceptible beings, varies across cultures and belief systems, but one thing remains constant: ghosts are beings of in-between realms. This in-betweenness is of particular interest to Lim explored as an idea, a lived experience, and a framework for new experiments in art and technology.

Lim’s exhibition is ghostly in and of itself. Video installations placed in both corners of the gallery necessitate darkness and produce flickers of light and shadows across the space. The largest video installation, Monolith (2021), features an interactive projection of an upright dark form inhabiting the atmosphere. Surrounded by whirling clouds, the dominating figure surrenders to our shrieks, collapsing onto itself before disappearing completely.

As ghost, Monolith comments on mass hysteria, fear of authority, and fear of one another, while also questioning what makes something human or nonhuman. The other video installation, Homo Lanterns (2020), simulates the passing of time, as three windows creep up the gallery walls through elaborate video mapping that begins on the gallery’s cement floor. An early hominid skull rotates in space within the center of the windows. The skull remains even as the windows fade out of focus, prompting inquiry into our evolutionary past.

Technology clearly plays a profound role in Lim’s ghostly articulations. In a brighter section of the gallery, ancient stone tools are reproduced as wax candles through a 3D printing and casting process. Tools such as these mark the earliest examples of what we call now call technology. The colorful sculptural pieces pull from both ancient and contemporary advancements and mark the collapsing of time and space. This is further evidenced through their fuel-like function in Flaming Tower II (2021), where Lim ignites them atop an aluminum stand and they melt themselves away.

A large purple photograph, Witnesses I (2021), presents a stereoscopic view of trees that have borne witness to humanity’s vicissitudes. This work gestures to the 19th-century photographic device that produced early three-dimensional images, while also highlighting the multiple views—proud, ashamed, and disgusted to name a few—that we can use to examine humanity’s collective history on the planet. Performativity is an equally important part of Lim’s practice. His works require our full attention, participation, and acknowledgment, but they also present new portals to bring forth what we might not yet be attuned to perceiving.