Redefining Resilience:

Embracing the Battleground Within and Beyond

“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” – Rumi

Wei-Ling Gallery proudly announces the year-end presentation of ‘Redefining Resilience: Embracing the Battleground Within and Beyond’ marking the seventh solo exhibition featuring the distinguished Malaysian artist, Yau Bee Ling. This series invites viewers on an introspective visual journey, where the artist intertwines the subtleties of nature with the complexities of one’s personal challenges.

Yau Bee Ling’s decades-spanning career becomes palpable through her exploration of natural elements, encompassing trees, valleys, caves, stalactites, and canyons. The exhibition comprises six monumental canvas paintings, each symbolising an aspect of her mind’s eye, accompanied by a selection of relief and sculptural pieces—a recent exploration and development in her oeuvre. Beyond capturing the inherent beauty of the surroundings, the artist’s brushstrokes and compositions also weave a narrative that speaks to her own inner struggles and life experiences.

The central theme of ‘Redefining Resilience’ is an examination of the ageing process as a source of wisdom and self-discovery. Yau Bee Ling incorporates new ideas into her works by adopting a child-like perspective in her artistic process, allowing her to open up to new perspectives and explore the natural world. This fosters a strong bond between her inner self and the changing external world, revitalising both the artist and the audience.

The exhibition unfolds as a visual and emotional voyage, symbolised by a sailing ship navigating the maritime domain. Wading through the sea waves echoes the adventure of crossing an explorative sea. This imagery encapsulates the emotional uncertainty of life’s journey, transforming the battleground and the hostile terrain within and beyond into a canvas or sculpture for exploration.

Yau Bee Ling’s personal journey unfolds as a courageous act, confronting a spectrum of contrasting elements—from clarity to fragility, from fleeting moments to powerful materiality. The dynamic visual expression that emerges speaks to the resilience found within the artist herself. This latest collection goes beyond the canvas, showcasing the therapeutic benefits of artistic expression Yau Bee Ling narrates her story through each piece, encouraging a perception of it as a catalyst for catharsis, personal growth, and contemplation.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

One of Malaysia’s foremost painters, Yau Bee Ling’s 25-year career is a deeply personal commentary on women’s complex roles in contemporary society. Born in 1972, her own experience forms the basis for her symbolism and autobiographical themes, especially the conflict of responsibilities brought about by shifting female identities from woman, wife to mother. Family and community ties engage her inner self in a complex tango between duty and independence, hope and fear, success and failure. She explores the question of meaning within this context, probing existential questions, pondering, finally, her own legacy.

Each series of paintings is charged with its own distinctive energy, reflective of her state of mind, her emotional wellbeing and the way she perceives her place in the world at the time. Her works are therefore a cathartic process for her as she struggles to reconcile the meaning of life, through the layering and scraping back of paint and colour, navigating her way through the twisting terrain of her paintings in the search for truth.

Bee Ling has exhibited extensively in exhibitions across China, Pakistan, Sweden, Singapore, Bangladesh, Japan, Indonesia and Malaysia and represented Malaysia at the Asian Art Biennale in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 1999 and at the Fukuoka Triennale in 2002. Her collection is also at the Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei National University of The Arts, Taipei, Taiwan, where she was Kuandu Artist in Residence at the Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts in Taipei in 2016. Her works are in the permanent collections of numerous private and public collections including Mulpha, Maxis Berhad and the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum.

‘Redefining Resilience: Embracing the Battleground Within and Beyond‘ is featured at Wei-Ling Contemporary from 28 November – 30 December 2023.

Wei-Ling Gallery is located at No 8, Jalan Scott, Brickfields, 50470 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Admission hours are Tuesday – Friday 10am – 6pm, Saturday 10am – 5pm.

Exhibition is open by appointment only. For appointments and further assistance, please contact +60322601106 or e-mail siewboon@weiling-gallery.com