PANGKIS

2021 - Film & Video (Film & Video)
9:30 minutes (looped)

Yee I-Lann

year born: 1971

gender: female

nationality: Malaysian

PANGKIS by Yee I-Lann is a looped video performance. The work is named after the triumphant warrior cry, an animistic guttural call, which punctuates the traditional Dusun Sumazau dance. For this work, the artist collaborated with Tagaps Dance Theatre, a group of young dancers whose practice merges traditional and contemporary styles. The woven objects worn by the dancers are Yee’s sculptural work 7-headed Lalandau Hat. This interconnected set of headdresses, activated by human movement and sound, explores the rootedness and ancestral knowledge of Indigenous cultures in Borneo. 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. PANGKIS features weaving by Lili Naming, Siat Yanau, Shahrizan Bin Juin. Choreography by Mohd Azizan Danial Bin Abdullah; Dancers Jay Adner James, Carey Didier Chin, Mohd Hairul Azman Peter, Addam Jesley, Shahhijjaz Khan, Mohd Nazri Adam, Earl Steiner (Tagaps Dance Theatre). Cinematography by Al Hanafi Juhar; Lighting by Candy Yik (Huntwo Studios). Location: The Factory @ Inanam

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and knowledge that counter dominant narratives in Malaysian culture, Yee employs a complex visual vocabulary drawn from historical references, popular culture, archives, and everyday objects.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.