19th century antique desk with accompanying chair, two LED dioramas from cut illustrations in wooden boxes, stuffed bird, antique letter cases with cut paper butterflies, antique frames with found photographs and old books, magnifying glass, compass and bottles.
Letters From The Forest (II) is reminiscent of a gentleman’s study-desk from colonial times, with an array of paraphernalia strewn across its surface alluding to themes of voyage, discovery and study: a magnifying glass, butterfly specimens in a wooden tray, books and a compass. Anchoring this installation are two evocative, other-worldly landscape dioramas, composed from layered paper cut-outs of flora and fauna from William Farquhar’s natural history drawings and Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius’s Book of Palms. An avid natural historian, and the British Resident and Commandant of Melaka from 1803 to 1818, Farquhar engaged local Chinese painters to document the nature and wildlife of the region, and they did so in images which combine traditional Chinese brush techniques with Western-style perspective and naturalism, resulting in a unique synthesis of art traditions and aesthetics. The artist’s appropriation, disassembling and refashioning of these images reflects her desire to "speak back" to these colonial legacies and to create new narratives.
