ILHAM Gallery is delighted to announce that it has recently launched a new exhibition entitled 'lift the tikar!' featuring video works, woven sculpture and tikar mats by Sabah-born and based artist Yee I-Lann made in collaboration with weavers, film-makers, dancers, other fellow creative producers and friends.
The exhibition which is being held on Level 3 will run from March 11 – June 18. The exhibition hopes to draw out ways in which the ‘tikar’ in form and concept can act as a medium for thinking about art, power, language and how we shape a society.
Yee I-Lann’s practice as an artist has included work in photomedia, textiles, installation and video. With a particular focus on the Southeast Asian region, her works draw on the aesthetics of colonialism, power, gender and shared memory.
In 2017, she moved back to Kota Kinabalu after 25 years in Kuala Lumpur, and began exploring the tikar, working with two communities of weavers – Dusun and Murut weavers in the inland district of Keningau and Bajau Sama DiLaut weavers in Pulau Omadal, Semporna, peoples of 'tanah' (land) and 'air' (water) respectively, with very different traditions employing different materials (bamboo pus and pandanus), motifs and styles.
A conversation has ensued between Yee I-Lann’s stories and ideas, artistic vision and process with the skills, knowledge, stories and experiences of her collaborators, leading to innovations in weaving, local creative economy, and the artist’s own practice.
There are hundreds of local names for the tikar across the Nusantara archipelago, each linked to a cultural and environmental heritage and landscape. Its use predates and has survived colonisation by Western powers and modern globalisation. It represents inherited ways of living, making and also thinking which are local and specific, shared yet rich in variation.
In the tikar, we can find a representation of an egalitarian, communal politics. Being a domestic object, predominantly made and used by women, we may consider it in a way 'feminist'. It is a piece of social architecture that is flat and modular rather than hierarchical, that is flexible, that can afford to be generous.
The exhibition brings together a substantial body of woven and video works including PANGKIS, 7-Headed lalandau Hat, Tikar Reben, Harunan Motol and works from the Tukad Kad Sequence.
“We are extremely pleased to be showing lift the tikar! as part of the larger collaborative project Borneo Heart in Kuala Lumpur with all of the rich conversations and exchanges happening in the different spaces and communities across the city,” said Rahel Joseph, Director of ILHAM Gallery.
“As education is a primary focus, we have prepared student learning labels throughout the exhibition which are suitable for secondary school and college students. We have also put together some exciting children’s programmes including our popular Art Discovery tours for younger children. All the details are available on ilhamgallery.com,” she added.
Ilham will also host the launch of the sun will rise in the east (published by RogueArt) – a monograph of Yee I-Lann’s work since 2011 – in early June 2023.
The exhibition 'lift the tikar!' is presented as part of Borneo Heart in Kuala Lumpur and is co produced by RogueArt and supported by Silverlens. – The Vibes, March 20, 2023
