Yim Yen Sum Weaves Stories of Urban Fragility Through Her Textile Art
The work comprised 954 pieces and its form shifts according to each exhibition space.
Although the COVID-19 pandemic began six years ago, most of us will still remember the air of melancholy it brought with it, along with days blurred together behind closed doors and distance replacing the comfort of touch. Many felt isolated as the world slowed down, with a faint glimmer of uncertain hope for the future. During this time, windows became a primary conduit to the outside world, creating distance while still allowing connection. Artist Yim Yen Sum became drawn to using windows as a way of seeing the city, saying, “It is a place to look out and to be looked at, a place that exists between inside and outside, longing and restraint.” Yim was also drawn to the individuality of various window façades.
This led her to creating an evolving piece, Through The Window, The Shore Moves, which was recently presented as a solo exhibition by art gallery A+ Works Of Art at Think City in George Town, Penang.
Rather than a canvas, the Fine Art graduate predominantly works with textiles to create ever-evolving installations that often explore the relationships and interconnectivity between members of society, as well as practices and interactions with the surrounding environment. In lieu of a paintbrush, her practice entails hours of incredibly delicate needlework, using units of gauze that have undergone a process of manipulation, including screen printing and appliqué. Yim’s works have been exhibited locally at the National Art Gallery in Kuala Lumpur and internationally at the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan; The Pier-2 Art Center, Taiwan; and the Biennale Jogja XV Equator, Indonesia.
Through The Window, The Shore Moves has steadily evolved and expanded over the years, growing into a remarkable body of work comprising a total of 945 pieces spanning 16cm × 5,775cm. Yim explains: “The artwork began in 2019 and remains ongoing. Rather than being developed toward a fixed endpoint, it has evolved gradually over time, shaped by continued observation, making, and reflection.” The piece evolved around the idea that cities, which fray and mend, are held together by threads of memory that stretch across generations and architecture. These threads were traced by Yim through woven architectural façades rendered in gold thread against expansive black-dyed gauze. The piece also adopted an elongated, scroll-like format inspired by the Chinese handscroll (長卷), which choreographed a slow journey through space, akin to walking a city or tracing a coastline.
Robb Report Malaysia spoke to Yim to find out more about Through The Window, The Shore Moves.
Your works seem to exist in a state of suspension. Is this uncertainty something you actively seek, or does it emerge naturally from your process?
The piece has been exhibited in different cities, and its form has shifted each time in response to the space and context. In Penang, the exhibition space had an open layout and, when both the front and back doors were open, the movement of air naturally interacted with the work. This felt like the most appropriate way to respond to the island’s context, leading me to present the work in a suspended form. The installation followed the shape of George Town’s coastline. In this way, uncertainty and suspension emerge organically through the relationship between the work, the space, and its situation, rather than from a fixed or predetermined one.
The piece adopts a format inspired by the Chinese handscroll. What drew you to this structure of unfolding time?
While looking at a handscroll, our vision moves left and right through an aesthetic space that is not fixed, unfolding slowly over time. As one unrolls it, one never knows what will appear next. It is revealed section by section, like a film, unfolding gradually and continuously. This resonates strongly with my experience of walking through a city, where moving through space and time feels like unrolling a scroll.
What do you hope viewers take with them after encountering the artwork?
Through the materials, forms, and semi-transparent qualities of the work, the audience encounters a quiet dialogue between elsewhere and here, the familiar and the unfamiliar, the seen and the unseen, insider and outsider. I hope this experience encourages an openness to change and attentiveness to how spaces, cities, and relationships are shaped gradually through human presence and connection, whether in positive or negative ways.
Image courtesy of Yim Yen Sum and A+ Works of Art
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