Yee I-Lann
Borneo Heart
2021
Off-set print, printed at
Sabah State Government Printers
59.4cm x 84.1cm
Two works by Yee I-Lann speak to the core of the
exhibition’s inquiry. Borneo Heart and Dusun Karaoke Mat: Ahaid zou noh doiti look at the place of Borneo in the contemporary history of the region of Southeast Asia.
Borneo Heart is a poster map of the world that literally places Borneo at the center of Southeast Asian regionalism and world-making. The early 1960s saw the consolidation of discourses on Malayan solidarity, with the formalization of Maphilindo, a short-lived confederation of then Malaya, the Philippines, and Indonesia based on a pan-Malayan ethnos. Borneo assumes a central role in this milieu,
as it plays out the limits and excesses of this configuration in relation to discourses of sovereignty, neo-colonialism, and communism and how these frame issues of regionality and region-formation.
Sabah, in particular, becomes a site of confrontation that deployed diplomacy and armed conflict: in 1962, the Philippines staked its claims to the territory against the British colonial power which led to a meeting between the two states in 1963 in London wherein both states framed the issue of Sabah within diplomatic relations and the impinging threat of communism in the region; in 1963, armed conflict sparked in Sabah led by “freedom fighters” encouraged by Indonesian state propaganda against the establishment of Malaysia branding it as a British neo-colonial ploy and empowering their armed offensive via covert military aid. This armed conflict and propaganda is enshrined in Indonesian President Sukarno’s policy of Konfrontasi, which aimed to forestall, if not prevent the formation of Malaysia. Borneo Heart speaks to this history and the centrality of Borneo in Cold War Southeast Asian regionalism. Available for purchase through this exhibition, the posters’ circulation as a commodity is an important aspect of the artwork and gestures at the economic stakes that define how narratives and images can circulate if not proliferate.
Yee I-Lann (b. 1971) currently lives and works in Kota Kinabalu in the Malaysian Borneo state of Sabah. Her primarily photomedia-based practice engages with archipelagic Southeast Asia’s turbulent history with works addressing issues of colonialism and neo-colonialism, power, and the impact of historic memory in social experience, often with particular focus on counter-narrative “histories from below.” She employs a complex, multi-layered, visual vocabulary drawn from historical references, popular culture, archives, and everyday objects. She has in recent years started working collaboratively with sea-based and land based communities and indigenous mediums in Sabah. She is a co-founding associate of The Ricecooker Archives: Southeast Asian Rock ‘n’ Roll Treasury with her partner Joe Kidd and has worked as a production designer in the Malaysian film industry. She is currently a board member for Forever Sabah and Tamparuli Living Arts Center (TaLAC), both based in Sabah.
Image courtesy of artist