1301PE is thrilled to announce our debut exhibition with preeminent Australia-based Malaysian artist Simryn Gill, Fall then. The exhibition will feature two new bodies of work, Repeating Chasms and Fall then, made in Port Dickson, Malaysia.
In her series of photographs Repeating Chasms, gazing out to the Strait of Malacca, Gill communicates both personal remembrance of a specific place and the effects of global industry on her home. The photographs act not just as historical documentation or personal recollection but reposition the idea of what photography can be; memory is reshaped and retold in the present, directing photography’s compass towards mythmaking rather than truth-telling. These works are exhibited with Fall then, a large series of one-to-one scale direct impression ink rubbings of flora found in Malaysia. Gill’s inclusion of Petai Cina “local” Lead trees native to Mexico, Tapiocas native to Malaysia and Lalang grasses both native and invasive in Malaysia envelop the viewer in life-like botanical images leaving us unsure of what is “native”. The pairing of these works is a stark reminder of the permanent consequences of colonialism and the everlasting effects of humanity’s actions upon our environment.
Simryn Gill was born in 1959 in Singapore, and lives in Sydney, Australia. She represented Australia in the 55th Venice Biennale (2013). Her work has been included in the Sydney Biennial (2018), Dhaka Art Summit (2018), Documenta 13 (2012) 12th Istanbul Biennial (2011), Sharjah Biennial (2007), and has been the subject of one person exhibitions at the Tate Modern, London; Espace Louis Vuitton, München; the Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC; Lunds Konsthall, Sweden; M KHA, Antwerp; the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; and the Gallery of Modern Art, Queensland. Her work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Tate Modern, London