Yee I-Lann

Yee I-Lann’s Sulu Stories series has traveled quite a fair bit around the world.

Yee I-Lann was born in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, East Malaysia in 1971 to a New Zealand mother and Sino-Kadazan [2] father. She identifies strongly as being Sabahan. She grew up with stories of Sulu, the land on the opposite shore to her home. They are shared stories of the sea, caught in trade, piracy, Muslim culture and allegory, uniting people and histories across waters stretching to the Philippines. It is a zone of intersections, where British, Spanish and Dutch colonialism abutted; where animism, Islam and Catholicism collide, and where borders remain volatile and in contention to this day. The Sulu region, effectively, presents a metaphor to broader global issues.

© Yee I-Lann

© Yee I-Lann

© Yee I-Lann

I-Lann is represented by Valentine Willie Fine Art Gallery.