Born 1971, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
Lives and works in Kota Kinabalu

Known for her work in photography, in recent years, Yee I-Lann has expanded her practice to incorporate weaving collaborations with indigenous communities in her home state of Sabah, in Malaysian Borneo. This shift coincided with her moving from Kuala Lumpur to her birthplace, Kota Kinabalu, where she has reconnected with her Sabahan identity and become a strong advocate for Bornean art, culture and community activism on an international level, while also working to foster contemporary practices locally.

Made in collaboration with Dusun weavings in Keningau, her work for APT10 is Dusun Karaoke Mat: Ahaid zou noh doiti (I’ve been here a long time), a text-based mat that presents a Dusun-language poem compiling fragments from folk songs in stark, black block lettering, woven into a lustrous bamboo ground. For Yee, the mats denote spaces of communal significance, preserving customary rhythms and behavioural grammar, while performing an architectural role in daily life, demarcating and democratising space.