Born in Sabah in 1971, Yee I-Lann lives and works in her hometown Kota Kinabalu, capital of the Malaysian Borneo state of Sabah. Her practice engages with regional Southeast Asian history addressing issues of colonialism, power, and the impact of historical memory in lived social experience. She employs a complex, multi-layered visual vocabulary drawn from historical references, popular culture, archives, and everyday objects. In recent years she has been working collaboratively with communities and indigenous mediums in Sabah. I-Lann has worked in art department and as a production designer in the Malaysian film industry since 1994 and between 2003 and 2008 established the production design department and lectured at Akademi Seni Budaya dan Warisan Kebangsaan (ASWARA). With her partner, rock and roll subculture archivist, musician, and designer Joe Kidd, they share KerbauWorks a cross-discipline project label and space. She is currently a board member for Forever Sabah based in Sabah and a co-founding partner of Kota-K Studio and Kota-K Art Gallery in Kota Kinabalu.

With a career as an artist spanning over three decades, I-Lann has presented 20 solo exhibitions under her belt since 1992 and participated in numerous prestigious international biennales and triennials such as the 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art at QAGOMA, Brisbane, Australia (2021); Indian Ocean Craft Triennial: Curiosity and Rituals of The Everyday at John Curtin Gallery, Perth, Australia (2021); Jakarta Biennale 2015: Neither Back Nor Forward: Acting In The Present in Jakarta, Indonesia (2015); and Singapore Biennale (2006), among others.