Artist Spotlight: Kimverlyn Lim
As a team, we knew when we started developing the Dottyland concept (enabling individuals to assetise their impact behaviour via tokenised community), that we wanted the mission to be expressed as a visual experience as much as a product solution. At first, this meant a unique visual representation for each identity token for community participants but as we’ve continued developing the initial solution we’ve been able to start integrating the world Kimverlyn Lim’s built, into the Dottyland experience as a whole.
So naturally we are very honoured to be able to introduce: Kimverlyn Lim (25), storyteller extraordinaire from Singapore.
Kimverlyn, how did you get into 3D art?
I love anime, video games, electronica music, and architecture. I would say they constantly inspire and influence me. As a kid, I loved Sims and was constantly building houses on it for hours. In terms of architecture, I love modernism, brutalism, and metabolism. These styles were defined as I lived through my childhood home.
Since I was born, I stayed in the same apartment with my family until about a year or two ago. This 90s white concrete building had a big influence on me, along with a house across the road. I found my building’s basement carpark really unique. It had a liminal space vibe. It had white pillars with warm globe lighting as well as structural poles running across the ceiling. Kinda similar to M. C. Escher, who is one of my favourite artists. Still, today, walking home at night through that carpark is a special kind of feeling. Next to our building was this crazy brutalist-metabolist building. It towered over me as I played with my friends at the playground, and at home, I would look at it from my window.
In Singapore, we have a lack of space so buildings get torn down and rebuilt really quickly. With our surroundings and culture changing all the time, I assume this is what makes a lot of Singaporeans nostalgic at heart. Me being equally nostalgic or maybe more, I always thought about how to recreate environments that might eventually disappear and I guess 3D was one way to do that. I was also largely intrigued at how 3D could almost replicate reality so close right now, we couldn’t tell the difference unless we really looked at the details.
I was also never really a drawer or painter — I’ve tried multiple times… I was always just drawn to the computer, so 3D made sense to me. At 11, I coded websites and learned the Adobe suite.
Your CV is… wow. You’ve done such different things already at 25: web design, advertising, product design, UX, 3D art, etc. Where does this stem from?
My grandfather used to tell me as a kid that I’m a curious child and I think that really stuck with me. I am generally a very curious person and I would like to try many things. Too many in fact that I have to put everything on a list to prioritise them. I don’t think I can complete all of them and be good at them all in my lifetime, but I’ll try.
Compiling my list, however, I discovered they all run in the same vein. Mostly art, music, and digital related.
At university, you studied communications and media. How did you get into UX and UI? And how do you manage to balance world-class clients like Nike, Google, and Spotify, with creating this deeply evocative NFT art?
I actually wanted to study fashion design at first because my goal was to be an editor in a fashion magazine, but my mom suggested that if I want to do journalism, I should go into comms and then niche into fashion from there. I thought it made sense, so I did that but fell into design and advertising instead. While working in social media, my colleague told me I should check out UX. I’d never heard of the term but once I researched it, it made a lot of sense to me. I did a course and started working in UX right after and here I am, 6 years later.
I try my best to reflect frequently and adjust accordingly. This helps me plan and reprioritise. I also try to reduce stress by going for floats or massages.
What is your relationship with sustainability?
I try to be sustainable, but sometimes it’s hard in an Asian country where everything is led by convenience. We get hawker food in plastic bags and utensils and it’s tough to go against that habitual behaviour.
I try my best to be as sustainable as I can. I try to buy my clothes and furniture second-hand. I also try to buy from sustainable stores, but sometimes it gets really expensive. That’s why I really align with what Dottyland is doing.
You created the Dottyland NFTs. Have you bought any NFTs yourself?
Yes. I own a Zen academy pass (I really respect what they are doing for the space, and the community is really insightful). Being there, I found and got into BFF and Meta Angels, which was how I met the Dottyland team. I also have a Cool Pet and I think they are one of the forerunners in terms of experimenting with NFTs via a game. My first few NFTs were an Alien Frens and a Coolman Speshie. I still hold them today.
I also share an NFT with my partner. It’s a page from Lostpoets, an experiment by Pak. I find his projects really interesting.
Last week, I bought a Surge Women passport, as I align with their values and approach. I’m also eyeing a crypto coven and a World of Women. I have some others but these are the main ones. I also really really love generative art such as Fidenzas. I don’t have one but would love to.
Which artists have inspired you?
Tons! I take inspiration from visuals, music, stories, and people.
M. C. Escher for his genius mind, Ricardo Bofill and Tadao Ando for their architecture, Oki Sato for his architecture also, but mainly for his 100+ live projects, Beeple for his work and complete dedication to releasing his dailies. I’m also very inspired by 3D artists that focus on architecture such as Charlotte Taylor, Joe Mortell, Six n Five, Andres Resinger.
Recently, I went to Spain and found this artist, Guillermo Lorca. He does huge paintings mixing fantasy, surrealism, and gore with incredible oil painting and lighting techniques. I’ve recently been quite obsessed with his dreamy, dark work. It’s an essence I hope to achieve in my work in the future.
I really respect a few design/creative tech studios too. Bureau Betak being one of them. I find their set design for fashion shows a treat to watch. TEAMLAB, Drift studio, and NONOTAK are a few more.
Anime landscapes, architecture, storylines too. I hugely admire anime and manga artists such as Junji Ito and Hajime Isayama. I find their brains and creativity have transcended to a whole new level. I also take a lot of inspiration from sci-fi and dystopian shows, anime, or IRL, such as Blade Runner, Her, and Ex Machina.
When it comes to music, I think Jamie XX, Max Cooper, and Moderat are amazing. Very experimental, genre-bending. Their attention to detail and how they layer their music are insane!
Looking at all these different things you’ve done, do you have any dreams of new roads?
Currently, I would like to refine my 3D style to explore something more dystopian and surreal. I’m also planning to work on my creative coding. In the next few years, I hope to merge my different interests in electronica music, UX design, 3D, and creative coding to come up with hopefully immersive set designs and experiences.
I hope to create a small design studio for myself and work on varying projects I enjoy. And if I achieve these, I hope to expand into interior design and try to work on some commercial projects.
How have you changed in the past 5 years?
I started working a lot about 5 years ago. I would just throw myself entirely into work and do it day and night. Presently, I think I have learned to prioritise myself and my own creativity a lot more. I give myself more space to absorb, relax and create instead of just working for a company all the time.
In terms of self in my 20s, I became more aware of my imposter syndrome, anxiety, as well as ADHD. Being aware of who I am really helps me be gentler to myself. I also learned how to filter my interests and priorities better.
Name a few creations that have made you who you are.
Big fan of Ignant, Archdaily and Dezeen. In terms of aesthetics, my taste leans more towards minimalism and well-designed, clean, functional designs across fashion, art, furniture, and products. Big shout out to Tumblr and its neat algorithm for that.
My favourite anime is Steins Gate. It changed my life. The story talks about time and its implications in the most convoluted way. I never looked at time, decisions, and their butterfly effect the same way again. A more recent German Netflix show “Dark” also had equivalent effects on me. Highly recommend.
“Ways of Seeing” by John Berger was a very interesting book that also repositioned the way I looked at art and culture.
When I was 15, I heard “Genesis” by Grimes and it blew my mind. That and “I’m God” by Clams Casino started my journey in electronica music. I can’t imagine my life without it.
From quite a young age, I was also really into fashion shows for their set design, performance, and clothing as art. I love The Row, Hussein Chalayan, and Helmut Lang.
I would also like to thank the color black! Is it even considered a color at all? I’m not sure why I love black so much but I find it really comforting and mostly only wear black. I find layering with black helps the focus on textures and tailoring. This has influenced a lot of my decisions and also reduced some.
I would also attribute my inclination towards self-expression to my mom. She worked in fashion so I had a lot of magazines to browse which helped influence my taste. She also never thought anything I did was weird and let me choose whatever I wanted.
And no matter what, I would like to credit the big ol’ internet. I wouldn’t be here without it.
What is the story of your Dottyland NFT collection tells?
This was a collaboration with the team. Full of light and abundance, nature and sustainability at the core. I made the landscapes intentionally full of flowers, hills, and gardens. People in various metallics symbolise personal value. The look is androgynous, as we are all human. We didn’t want any beautified features or what society deemed as “beautiful”.
In total, we have 14 layers of elements, and from this, it is possible to do thousands of generations for the collection.
Lastly, the molecules are a representation of nature — water, snow, leaves, and petals. In the night version, we also have fireflies and bioluminescence. The goal was to immerse the user in each piece as if they are present in that natural space.
Dottyland is the women-led mission to make saving the world possible for everyone. Find out more and sign up for change: dottyland.xyz
