Mansau-ansau is the name of a weave created by Yee and her collaborators Julitah Kulinting, Lili Naming and Shahrizan Bin Juin of Keningau in 2018. Produced during an exploration of motifs, they attempted to create a challenging new style that would constantly change its course, finally succeeding once intention was surrendered and the pattern was simply allowed to emerge. The word mansau-ansau in the Dusun and Kadazan language means to wander almost nomadically, and its movement, as realised in this weave, can only be observed after it has found its path.

Image credits: Detail view of Yee I-Lann’s A map of Mansau-ansau (2024) as part of Yee I-Lann: Mansau-Ansau at SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark. Image courtesy of Singapore Art Museum.

In Southeast Asia, the orang besar (big person) refers to someone with economic wealth and social-political influence. Their elevated standing is often by virtue of others giving up labour and power in return for security and well-being, with this dynamic replicated to higher and higher levels.

The kain panjang (long cloth) is worn with more formality than the kain sarong (long sheath), as it is wrapped tightly from waist to ankle, with this restrictive style rendering it less practical for the working-class body. It also differs from the kain sarong which may feature a kepala (head) design and is generally shorter in length.

Combining features of the two, the artwork comments on past and present relationships between the powerful and powerless in society, further illustrated by flora familiar to the region, in this instance featuring the “petulant” mimosa (pokok semalu, shy plant), with its sensitive leaves that fold and close when triggered.

Image credits: Detail view of Yee I-Lann’s The Orang Besar series: Kain Panjang with Petulant Kepala (2010) as part of Yee I-Lann: Mansau-Ansau at SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark. Image courtesy of Silverlens (Manila/New York).

Geographical proximity that enables travel, along with the tides of politics and history, form the visible and invisible lines that intimately connect Sabah with southern Philippines. This shared seascape is a storied space from which the artist’s visual dioramas emerge, produced using digital collage to combine her photographs of seas and skies with images and information collected from archives and libraries. Layered upon their expanse are the myths and imaginaries of sea nomads and natives, the conflicts and alliances of colonial conquest and contemporary political manoeuvres, as well as the symbol and nature of wildlife, all held in place by a horizon that reveals, as much as it conceals, that which is above and below this common waterline.

Borderline features cement pillars photographed in the sea of Bacoor Bay, Cavite, referencing the Philippine Declaration of Independence signed in 1898 in Cavite, Philippines. The declaration was not recognised by either the United States or Spain. A green back turtle (green sea turtle, chelonia mydas), considered endangered though fairly common in the Sulu Sea, appears within these waters. Female green sea turtles are known to return to the beach of their birth to lay their eggs, navigating these seas via an innate compass.

Image credits: Detail view of Yee I-Lann’s Sulu Stories: Borderline (2005) as part of Yee I-Lann: Mansau-Ansau at SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark. Image courtesy of Silverlens (Manila/New York).

Measuring Project provides an anti-colonial antidote via the woven mat, with its fundamentally egalitarian and literally grounded form that contrasts the table. In prompting a re-seeing and re-learning of value systems, Measuring Project invokes and connects with ancestral knowledge and their communities to suggest new futures easily found in the realignment of the body from chair to mat.

Chapter Seven completes the photomedia series with a reference to Ursula Le Guin’s “Space Crone” in which she posits the wise female elder as the ideal representative of humanity with her rich knowledge of human conditions and experience.

Image credits: Detail view of Yee I-Lann’s Measuring Project: Chapter Seven (2022) as part of Yee I-Lann: Mansau-Ansau at SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark. Image courtesy of Silverlens (Manila/New York).

Picturing Power capitalises on the archives of the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam (Museum of the Tropics) to reveal the history of colonial violence in Malaya through the banality and ubiquity of administration, governance and education. What one wears, how one sits or squats, and the instruments one can wield all subtly, but incontrovertibly, mould the person, their outlook and therefore their world.

Image credits: Detail view of Yee I-Lann’s Picturing Power: Wherein one cultivates cultural codes, the noble endeavours of mankind and thereby puts them in their place (2013) as part of Yee I-Lann: Mansau-Ansau at SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark. Image courtesy of Silverlens (Manila/New York).

The tukad kad stepped weave is named after the ridges on the roof of one’s mouth that become pronounced under conditions of heat or acidity. This trigger site, and the mouth as gateway into our bodies, are given focus in the video work PANGKIS. The word “pangkis” refers to the warrior cry of the Murut in Sabah, used to call the community together, signal victory, and even protect one from harm. PANGKIS captures the performance of Sabah’s Tagaps Dance Theatre that combines traditional and contemporary movements to the sounds of this war cry whilst wearing the Murut lalandau jungle hat. Conventionally, the hat has spires representing trees of the jungle, adorned with feathers of the lalandau or argus bird. Instead, they are connected as if a canopy conjoining the warriors as their war cry is heard in reverse, its hypnotic sound returning into the body.

Credits:
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, 2021.

Image credits: Detail view of Yee I-Lann’s PANGKIS (2021) as part of Yee I-Lann: Mansau-Ansau at SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark. Image courtesy of Silverlens (Manila/New York).

Voices and memories also conjoin in karaoke’s embrace. “hello from the outside” weaves together songs that have become popular across communities and peoples, their lyrics inevitably causing one to sing along when read. The lyrics found in the work are from songs selected by weavers of Keningau and Pulau Omadal, Sabah, representing their favourite karaoke hits.

Image credits: Detail view of Yee I-Lann’s “hello from the outside” (2019) as part of Yee I-Lann: Mansau-Ansau at SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark. Image courtesy of Silverlens (Manila/New York). Photo credit: Wirat Kanchalard.

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Explore the textured aesthetics of Sabah-born artist Yee I-Lann, renowned for her versatile practice featuring photomedia, batik, weaving and video, in a publication that complements the exhibition Yee I-Lann: Mansau-Ansau at Singapore Art Museum. The exhibition presents works by the artist across two decades charting her engagement with topics such as colonial critique, politics and power, and their alternatives in egalitarian forms, language and economies.

This publication provides a reflexive and interwoven reading of the concepts and philosophies in Yee’s practice through regional and international writers, curators and critics.

Retail price: 40 SGD (inclusive of GST)
Details: Softcover, 154pp
ISBN number: 978-981-94-1139-9