7-headed Lalandau Hat
2020 - Sculpture (Sculpture)
196 7/8 inches
Yee I-Lann
7-headed Lalandau Hat by Yee I-Lann is an intricately woven sculpture evoking the ceremonial headdress worn by Murut men in Borneo. The materiality and form of this traditional headpiece represents the strength and fierceness of forest warriors. Their ‘chimneys’ on top are intended to resemble trees in the jungle onto which hornbill feathers would once have been stuffed. In Yee’s version, seven of the headdresses are interconnected by a woven constellation of tubes, embodying the collective and spiritual experience of ritual. Combined, the woven sculpture and the video form part of Yee’s Borneo Heart, an ongoing body of work and community project that actively collaborates with indigenous weavers, filmmakers, dancers, and other fellow creative producers from Kota Kinabalu in the Malaysian Borneo state of Sabah. 7-headed Lalandau Hat features weaving by Lili Naming, Siat Yanau, Shahrizan Bin Juin.
Addressing the turbulent geopolitical history of Southeast Asia’s archipelagos, Yee’s photography-based practice engages with issues of colonialism, neo-colonialism, structures of power, and historical memory. Yee I-Lann’s photography and photomontages explore colonial histories by addressing notions of power, historical memory, and visual culture. She draws upon many visual sources including popular culture, archival photographs, and everyday objects. Surfacing histories and knowledge that counter dominant narratives in Malaysian culture, Yee employs a complex visual vocabulary drawn from historical references, popular culture, archives, and everyday objects. She has recently begun working collaboratively with sea-based and land-based communities and Indigenous mediums in Sabah, Borneo. Yee is also 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.
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Yee I-Lann
2013Sarcastically titled to call attention to the problematic notions underlying colonialism, this photograph shows hundreds of Native Malaysians seated quietly behind one of their colonial oppressors...