About the Exhibition
TIKAR/MEJA is a show of over 30 woven mats that depict tables. The works interrogate the symbolic prestige of the table by juxtaposing its inherited colonial power against the communal character of the tikar.
TIKAR/MEJA
An exhibition by Yee I-Lann
featuring work made with weaving by Kak Sanah, Kak Kinnohung, Kak Budi, Kak Leleng, Kak Horma, Makcik Bilung, Kak Roziah, Adik Dela, Adik Erna, Abang Boby, Adik Alini, Adik Aisha, Adik Darwisa, Adik Marsha, Adik Dayang, Adik Tasya, Adik Shima, Adik Umaira, Abang Tularan
Artist Statement
These mats were largely made by women. In pre-colonial times, there was no word for table, because there were no tables in the Southeast Asian Archipelago. The table in my imagery represents colonial power, or a kind of hard patriarchy. The Malay word for table, meja, and the Philippines Tagalog word, mesa, both come from the Portuguese and Spanish word for table, mesa.
How do you colonise someone? Instead of an army of guns, imagine an army of tables. The violence of administration. That violence of administration is more lethal, more violent, than a gun. With a gun I may just shoot you, but with a table, with administration, I will tell you who you are, what your history is, what is valuable to be kept in a museum and what is not, what language you should use, what languages you should learn, what is of value. This indoctrination of the mind becomes inherited violence.
I see the woven mat as architectural, calling people to commune together, to share a platform. Throughout the region, all mother tongues have their own name for mat. I think of the mat as being fundamentally feminist and egalitarian. To de-colonise is to see the table and to see the mat.
About Borneo Heart in KL
The wider Borneo Heart in KL project will feature yet more events happening across Kuala Lumpur. Participating venues are The Godown Arts Centre, A+ Works of Art, ILHAM Gallery, and Galeri RumahLukis.
Borneo Heart was initiated in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, in 2021, and was the artist Yee I-Lann’s first solo exhibition in her homeland of Sabah. It was not just an art exhibition, but a major celebration of the community, cultures, and knowledge of the indigenous peoples of Sabah, to whom I-Lann’s recent practice is heavily indebted. In the same way, the Kuala Lumpur iteration of Borneo Heart is also driven by the spirit of community and horizontal knowledge-sharing. Rather than gather the exhibition in one site, Borneo Heart depends on the hospitality and collaboration of art spaces joining their ‘tikars’ together to make use of it for their communities. It is a sharing of different mats.
Find out more at their website, Linktr.ee, Instagram, or Mereka.io.
About the Artist
Yee I-Lann (b. 1971) lives and works in her hometown Kota Kinabalu. I-Lann has also worked in art department and as a production designer in the Malaysian film industry. With rock ‘n roll subculture archivist, musician and designer Joe Kidd, she shares KerbauWorks, a cross-discipline label and space. She is currently a Board member of Forever Sabah and co-founder of KOTA-K Studio.
She has held solo exhibitions in Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Manila, Taipei, Adelaide, New York and Dallas, including a major presentation at Ayala Museum, Manila in 2016 and at CHAT (Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile), Hong Kong in 2021. She has participated in international exhibitions since the 1990s, most recently Istanbul Biennial, Aichi Triennale and Bangkok Art Biennale (all 2022), Indian Ocean Craft Triennale (2021), In Our Best Interests: Afro-Southeast Asian Affinities during a Cold War (NTU ADM Gallery Singapore, 2021 and further iterations in Manila & Busan), Looking for Another Family: 2020 Asia Project (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea); Asian Art Biennial: The Strangers from beyond the Mountain and the Sea (2019), Sunshower: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia 1980 to Now (2017-2020) and BODY/PLAY/ POLITICS (Yokohama Museum of Art, 2016).
For Yee I-Lann's full biography, visit Silverlens.
Instagram: @yeeilann
