CURTAIN

Xia Yi

2022
Domestic Textiles (polyester and cotton fabric)
150cm x 210cm


CURTAIN is a part of the Objects of Comfort Series of sculptural objects made using everyday materials that can be found within domestic spaces. The Curtain focuses into the bedroom as a place of comfort, intimacy, violence and trauma throughout generations. It provides protection and the hiding of privacy, a gatekeeper between our inner and outer worlds.The materials used have been passed down from one generation to the next, personally since I was a child till present day.

For the Objects of Comfort Series, the usage of domestic materials such as cotton pillowcases, baby blankets, discarded undergarments, linen kitchen napkins and batik (previously used during childbirth) started as an act of preservation and remembrance, consequently becoming an attempt to counterbalance varying interpretations, removal and destruction of memories. I am working alongside my grandfather’s photographs from 1969 and closely alongside my grandmother throughout the process of making Objects of Comfort.



Ang Xia Yi is an artist from Kuala Lumpur. Her visual-based practice focuses on history, memory, identity politics and the emotional consequences of colonialism and its resulting socio-political legacies. Her interest lies within the vernacular aspects of material culture, viewing materials as carriers of history, traditions and identity that transcends beyond generations.

@_xiayi on Instagram.