“I love the
open desert. I love having so much space. I love stretching my eyes to a
distant distant point that’s not interrupted by a tree, a building or a hill. I
love that huge sky that gets heavier and heavier the longer I look at it and it
lightly embraces me with all the knowledge and possibility of the universe. I
love the disc of the earth, the horizon that circles me, marks me and places me
Here. At this point. Here. I love having perspective. I am the center of the
universe and this is my proof, everything stems from me. I can see it, it is
real; it is true.”by Yee I-Lann(2003)
After returning
Malaysia from Australia , Yee
I-Lann created ‘Horizon’ series of photomedia material, presents a black and
white expansive landscape with strong sense of surreal visualization. The
deliberately placed objects have strengthened the uncanny feelings that open
the opportunity for more imagination. How mainland Australia
impacts and affects the artist thoroughly is revealed in the images of broad
land and endless horizon line. No matter in Malaysia
or in Taiwan ,
our sight is often blocked by artificial buildings as well as natural mountains due to
the geographical feature of big population and heavy-load environment. Thus, we are gradually
losing the ability and opportunity to horizontally expand our field of view. It
is assumable that how excited I-Lann could be while the Australian vast plain
and long horizon line first came across her eyes.
‘During my recent stay in Australia I
became obsessed with the horizon line. I found myself surrounded by this
circular continuous line that separated the red disc of earth I stood on from a
cloudless blue sky above.’
In addition to
praise the horizons on the appearance, I-Lann with her academic background in
Australia further expands her vision of art, subtlely expressing her suspicion
of the former Chief Executive of Malaysia Mahathir bin Mohamad’s
political slogan "Vision 2020" (Wawasan 2020) . Mahathir as
Malaysian prime minister for 22 years (1981-2003), successfully
transformed Malaysia into a modern and industrial country, made
economic grow far ahead than other countries in Southeast
Asia, second to Singapore, and his
famous "vision 2020 "also strengthened
the Malay's sense of togetherness. However, after all the good numbers, is the truth really so beautiful behind the scene of
prosperity and progress? The artist intentionally adding “W” in the front
and “AN” in the end on a road sign written "AWAS" (AWAS hereby
means "be careful"), made it to "WAWASAN
"(" vision " in Malay) meaning " Watch
Vision”! The warning and refection to the well-known slogan are played out in the kitschy road sign.
In another
work entitled Horizon: In the Palm of Putrajaya, the artist
by arranging a large number of
computer-aided local Malaysian palm trees which
almost obscured the distant horizon in the back, highlighted
a Muslim woman who holds an ID card blocking her eyes. We
couldn’t clearly see what’s written on the document, nor could we barely
see the woman's face ... ... Yee I-Lann uses this
photo to convey the close intimacy between Malay and their
homeland. The relationship cannot be cut out for any terms of difference. As for the identity and symbols
imposed by the nation, I-Lann considers pointless, just like the
vague document appeared in the image.
Compared
to the expansive natural horizon, ‘Malaysiana’ series created
one year earlier could be regarded as an artificial horizon
line, shown in a form of arranged old photo collection of similar background
and posture. Those old photos not only carry the past memory
and emotion of Malaysia ,
but also are the beginning of I-Lann’s macroscopic vision. The statement has been
made by a curator Beverly Yong in a magazine, PhotoArtAsia of
2008. 'Malaysiana' series indeed is a
collaboration project done between the artist and a local senior photography studio,
Pakard Photo. I-Lann has collected a bunch of portraitures from the studio and
patiently categorized the different photo groups to an aligned photo collage as
a series of microfilm addressing the history. The neat photo arrangement
clearly shows the living and cultural clip from the past. Through repetition
of the image stack, display of similar clothing style, and entire
feelings of the Malay, I-Lann quietly translate the personal vocabulary to
national, racial, and cultural identity, making a perfect reflection of
Malaysian background as being a great Asia melting
pot.
Besides,
Taiwanese would have stronger connection to these ordinary photos of civilians
since we share similar memories and experience. We could sense the intense
feeling of kinship family, as well as the vigor and passion of young generation. The most
important thing is that the photos convey the common wish of future expectation
and desire of pursuing stability and belonging, which is undoubtedly eternal emotion of the entire mankind in the regardless of age, nation, race, and culture.
The horizons
from these two series seem a great contrast- color vs. black
and white, artificial vs. natural, realism vs. poetry,
narrow vs. vast- but each implies for the same exploration
and concern of national history, culture, kinship,
and ethnic identity. From the reference of I-Lann’s image
production, we would be able to fully understand her capability of
in-depth exploration and care to the issues of Malaysian politics and
culture. It is always her core ideology of art creation through the whole time.
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