

40 Earth and Elsewhere | Contemporary Works from the Collection
Earth and Elsewhere | Contemporary Works from the Collection 41
Simryn Gill
/ Malaysia b.1959 /
Dalam
(detail) 2001 / Type C photograph on paper / 260 sheets: 32.5 x 31.2cm (each) / 260 sheets: 23.5 x 23.5cm (each comp.) /
Acc. 2003.075.001–260 / The Kenneth and Yasuko Myer Collection of Contemporary Asian Art. Purchased 2003 with funds from The Myer Foundation, a project of the
Sidney Myer Centenary Celebration 1899–1999, through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation
S imryn G i ll
Dalam
2001
One of Simryn Gill’s interests is to investigate how people
define themselves in relation to family, community and nation.
Dalam
, meaning ‘deep’, ‘inside’ or ‘interior’, is the title of a
series by Gill that documents the living areas of homes across
Malaysia. It was the result of two questions posed by the artist:
‘What does the “inside” of a place look like?’ and ‘Do many people,
held together by geography, add up to the idea of a nation or
single unified group?’ In the absence of human figures, there is
a suggestion of their ‘ghostly presence’ here, through which the
enigmatic aspects of
dalam
become evident; the viewer may
imagine the people who live in these homes, knowing that they
are privileged to have access to these private, often humble and
certainly personal places.