2a - To Picture a Nation: The Representation of Malaysian Identity in Selected Photomedia Work

To Picture a Nation: The Representation of Malaysian Identity in Selected Photomedia Work from Yee I-Lann, presented by Sheryl Lynne Tan This paper investigates themes of Malaysian identity and the imagined Malaysian community through selected works from Yee I-Lann’s photomedia practice, Through Rose Coloured Glasses (2002), the Malaysiana series (2002), and the Rasa Sayang series (2012-2021). Malaysia is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious plural society that continues to grapple with issues of identity. Sabahan artist Yee explores ideas of identity and the imagined community through the use of found studio photographs and crowdsourced photographs in her work that pictures the imagined Malaysian community. This paper situates Yee’s works in the sociopolitical contexts in which they were created, discusses the strategies that Yee uses in her work as well as examines the impact that curatorial intent and the exhibitionary context have on the reading of Malaysian identity and the imagined Malaysian community in the selected works from Yee’s practice. Presentation slides at https://docs.google.com/presentation/... ABOUT SHERYL LYNNE TAN Sheryl Lynne Tan is an editor and researcher whose work examines the intersections of visual culture, nationalism, and historical consciousness in Malaysia. She holds an MA Asian Art Histories with distinction at Goldsmiths, University of London (in partnership with LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore), where her research focused on representations of Malaysian identity in contemporary photomedia practice, and has worked as an editor at National Gallery Singapore. Sheryl's current research interests include postcolonial nation-building, cultural policy, memory, and the role of art in shaping state and public imaginaries in Southeast Asia, with a particular focus on Malaysia. Sheryl is currently an MA in History candidate at the National University of Singapore.