A quintessential cliffhanger is an example of a plot device in fiction. It features a main character in a precarious dilemma, confronted with a bombshell revelation during a significant juncture of its story. Usually, a cliffhanger hopes to persuade an audience to return to see how the characters resolve said dilemma. At the drop of a hat, any situation poses potential for risk, foreshadowing, or proclamation. We are immersed in societal cliffhangers, under rehearsed and overly scripted.

In Esmond Loh’s (b.1995) debut solo exhibition with Haridas Contemporary, Cliffhanger provides various alternate commentaries on a hyper-connected society at the brink of existential cliffhangers. Featuring fourteen paintings depicting scenes of climate dystopia, urban isolation, and the precious intimacy of mourning, Loh’s work concocts entities beyond human figures. Ranging from animals, trees, buildings, abstract forms, and enigmatic objects, an orchestrated interaction is fostered between his characters to heighten seemingly ordinary scenarios, teetering into surreptitious endings.