Drawing from Yarli’s ‘uprooting’ background, this series explores the notion of home, emotional boundaries and settlement, using plant propagation as metaphor with a literal approach. Working with a process to generate affect and care, the characters are first hand-drawn in a child-like scribbling way, and then take form by Yarli’s hand-sculpted practice to elaborate their expression.
The glass bottle in the photo is not included. Yarli encourages collectors to ‘plant’ the work in their own containers as a gesture of diasporic care and propagation.
“Dedicated to my fallen Orchid baby from its mother stem. I found it lying helplessly on the wooden floor, with many flowers still attached. The baby keiki was later rescued and propagated into a new pot.” (Yarli’s diary, written before relocating to Paris from London, 2019). Yarli Allison's work is part of the Decriminalised Futures exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary.
Bio
Yarli Allison (1988, Ottawa) is a Hong Kong-Canadian born, UK-based art worker with a multidisciplinary approach that traverses sculpture, performance, VR imagery, film, drawing and installation. She is currently exploring subjects on digital humanity, belonging and coping mechanisms with a queering fictitious approach.
Yarli graduated in 2017 with an MFA first-class honour in Sculpture from the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, UK, with the entry award of the year’s Yitzhak Danziger scholarship.
Solo and group exhibitions include VIDEOTAGE Gallery, Hong Kong (2020), TAI KWUN CONTEMPORARY, Hong Kong (2021), Barbican, London (2021), LINZ FMR, Austria, (2021), FACT, Liverpool (2021-2022), Institute of Contemporary Arts: ICA London (2022). Recent grants include Hong Kong Art Council Project Grant (2019) and Arts Council England Project Grant (2022). She is a member of London’s Asia-Art-Activism network.
