The act of travelling is an important thread throughout Tee’s artistic practice. Indonesian textiles, known as ship cloths, and the heritage of her Chinese-Indonesian father prompted Tee to travel to Sumatra. In the Lampung region of Sumatra small tampan and larger palepai (ship cloths) were produced. These textiles feature a ship with a mast that often branches out into a tree of life - evocative of human souls continuing on to new lives. While traditional production of the cloth is now gone, Tee found traces of the patterns on other materials such as metal gates and mosaics. For the TextielMuseum Tee made two series of textiles based on tampan motifs.

Commissioned by the TextielMuseum, generously supported by the Mondriaan Foundation


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