Nine Dash Line

Nine Dash Line refers to the contentious territorial dispute over the South China Sea, and the delineation by China, seen in the red dashes across the scene, of a vast area that it claims control over. The South China Sea region has been prominent in the news because of the military facilities that China is constructing on top of sensitive coral reefs near the Spratley Islands, an archipelago whose individual islets, cays, atolls and reefs are variously claimed by other nations in the region including Taiwan, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. This large photo-collage is made from hundreds of images of the South China Sea taken by the artist over the past ten years from various coastal locations: the East Coast of West Malaysia, from the island of Borneo off the Sabah coast, from the Sarawak coast, as well as from Vietnam and the Philippines, all digitally stitched together to create a composite image of an ominous storm on the horizon. The island-like forms in the foreground were made by the artist out of cloth, alluding to the important pre-colonial trade in indigenous textiles throughout maritime Southeast Asia. Dark clouds of the monsoon season add a sense of foreboding, while reminding us of the effects of climate change that are making these storms ever more destructive throughout the region. The entire image is overlaid with grids taken directly from the Photoshop software that the artist used to construct this composite image.Yee I-Lann‘s photo-media-based practice engages with island Southeast Asia’s turbulent history to address the impact of politics, neo-colonialism, and globalization on local cultures and the environment. Yee I-Lann was born in Kota Kinabalu, the capital of the northern Borneo province of Sabah; she is now based in Kuala Lumpur.