Poh Ling Yeow

Poh Ling Yeow was born in Malaysia in 1973, spending the first nine years of her life in Kuala Lumpur. Her family then migrated to Adelaide, South Australia where she now lives and works. After completing a Bachelor of Design, specialising in illustration at the University of South Australia, Yeow freelanced as a graphic designer and illustrator. She has been painting full-time since the beginning of 2002.

Working predominantly with acrylic, Yeow's works emphatically explore notions of belonging and origin. As a fifth-generation Chinese Malaysian, Yeow's paintings are an attempt at reconciling this heritage with her western identity.

Her traditionally-influenced works and often whimsical use of Chinese iconography acknowledges the fragmentation of her cultural experience.

Yeow's works in 2007 placed the girl in the traditional terrain of classical Chinese paintings as a stranger in the land of her ancestors.

Poh Ling Yeow’s new body of work for Hill Smith Gallery examines the notion of belonging. As she says “Half Bird is about living in two worlds and trying to find a sense of belonging”. This in between state presents multiple possibilities that Yeow evokes in these enigmatic compositions of hybrid creatures.

As a Chinese-Australian, Yeow reconciles aspects of her past in her work. Previous paintings were based on portraits of family members and expressed a sense of cultural fragmentation and while ‘Half Bird’ continues this theme, it playfully explores it further. Working with acrylic on canvas, the paintings comprise central subjects within deep black backgrounds. An exquisitely rendered array of characters project themes of becoming as if suspended on a dark threshold of possibility.

Poh’s combination of Western and traditional Chinese iconography with contemporary Asian imagery as seen in anime, augments the visual metaphor of living in two worlds at once. Director of Hill Smith Gallery, Sam Hill-Smith says: “we are delighted to host the sixth exhibition of Poh Ling Yeow’s work. Over this period of time, I have seen her practice develop and grow into one that consistently encompasses her love of colour and design with a deeper acknowledgement of her cultural heritage that co-exists in a Western environment.

Feather Mandalas
Artist’s Statement

"The new works, made from budgerigar feathers have been in the planning for about 5 years because it’s taken me that long to collect enough of them from when the budgies malt (no, I don’t have 2 nude budgies sitting miserably on a perch). I have 2 budgies, Trevor and Sunny Day but nearly all the feathers are from Trevor who has the ONLY wild Australian budgie (Melopsitaccus undulatas) colouring of green and yellow.

To make the works, I’ve had to sort out the feathers by shape, size and colouring and in the end I had close to 60 types to work with. It’s been a brilliant thing to be able to expand my practice into assemblage and the experience of making the work has been very different from painting. for one, you can't be too rambunctious and be doing things like whistling whilst working with such miniscule feathers - I learnt the hard way! Some are so tiny, they are but a mere dot and one day when I had sorted a small pile of feathers to put away, a blowfly zoomed by and actually managed to stir and lift a few into the air, and so I was magically transported into this microcosm every time I made the works which was delightful. I did find myself getting quite lightheaded at times because I had to hold my breath so much during the process. The colours and patterns are incredible - I would make more detailed observations everyday and sometimes what originally seemed like one type of feather, would then be divided into 3 different containers. They just kept multiplying! And every time I held a feather in my fingers or tweezers, I found myself thinking about the DNA that had caused that feather to sprout from a specific part of the bird’s body - I’ve really treasured the experience of using a natural medium and the affinity it gives me with my environment. It throws me into heavy contemplation about the universe I live in.

I deliberately didn’t want to think about the design of the works too much because I wanted the nature of the medium to be the focus so it was a matter of following the first circle of colour and pattern and deciding what effect I was hoping for as I went along - making a basic pattern like this seems to emerge so naturally to a human being, it’s very primal, very meditative".

Poh Ling Yeow
October 2011

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2011
Half Bird, Hill Smith Gallery, Adelaide
2010
Recent Works, Libby Edwards Gallery, Melbourne
2009
Recent Works, Hill Smith Gallery, Adelaide
2008
Recent Works, Libby Edwards Gallery, Sydney
2007
Recent Works, Hill Smith Gallery, Adelaide
Recent Works, Libby Edwards Galleries, Melbourne
2006
Recent Works, Hill Smith Gallery, Adelaide
Recent Works, Libby Edwards Galleries, Sydney
2005
Recent Works, Libby Edwards Galleries, Sydney
2004
Hill-Smith Fine Art, Adelaide
Dickerson Gallery, Melbourne
Sydney Affordable Art Fair, Hill Smith Gallery
2002
Hill Smith Gallery, Adelaide


GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2007
Director's Choice, Hill Smith Gallery Adelaide
2006
Libby Edwards Galleries, Brisbane
Pembroke School Exhibition, Adelaide
2005
Hil Smith Gallery, Adelaide
Metro 5 Gallery, Melbourne
Libby Edwards Gallery, Woollahra, NSW
Sydney Art Fair, (Hill-Smith Fine Art)
2004
Melbourne Affordable Art Fair (Dickerson Gallery)
Sydney Affordable Art Fair, (Hill-Smith Fine Art)
2003
Christmas Collection, Hill-Smith Fine Art, Adelaide
Sydney Affordable Art Fair (Hill-Smith Fine Art)
Yalumba Harvest Market "Framed Food" Group Exhibition, Barossa Valley SA


Collections:
BHP Billiton
Borrelli Walsh, Hong Kong