Artist Yee I-Lann presents BAMPFA’s 2024 endowed Lijin Lecture in conjunction with her Art Wall project, TIKAR/MEJA/PLASTIK. The Borneo-based multidisciplinary artist addresses this work in the context of her wider practice, which combines traditional methods of making with contemporary concerns around ecology, indigeneity, and migration. Additionally, she relates her work to the art and film landscape in Sabah, Malaysia, and Southeast Asia more broadly, with an emphasis on issues of climate crisis, precarious ecologies, and the creation of resilient communities. A film screening immediately following the lecture, introduced by Yee, constitutes the first international showcase of short films from Borneo.

Three recent films by young filmmakers from Borneo address the challenges different children face as they try to learn about the world around them while also striving to be understood and accepted for who they are. In Rama Rama, an exuberant, funny young girl finds herself constrained by traditional expectations of femininity when her mother enters her in the annual harvest festival beauty pageant. It’s Not Too Late Raya depicts the effort of an undocumented Bajau Laut girl to access the books in the local library. Toteng, the protagonist of The House without a Ground, is a stateless child whose quest to go to school has tragic consequences.

Yee I-Lann, born in 1971 in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, has exhibited internationally in both solo and group exhibitions. Her newly commissioned project TIKAR/MEJA/PLASTIK (2024) is on view at BAMPFA through July 2024.