Italian
From 12 November to 16 December 2025, the British artist of Malaysian Chinese and English heritage explores mixed identity, material memory, and belonging through sculptural installations, ceramics, and etchings
LONDON – Tache, a new contemporary art gallery in the heart of Fitzrovia, London, presents A Constructed Home, the debut solo exhibition of Alison Wing Yin Poon, on view from 12 November to 16 December 2025. The exhibition investigates themes of mixed-heritage identity, material memory, and belonging, while engaging with contemporary debates on cultural heritage and authenticity.
Through sculptural installations, ceramics, and etchings, Poon explores the connections between people and the spaces they inhabit, combining found objects with materials such as ceramic, lacquer, and faux bois to evoke cross-cultural familiarity. Of Malaysian Chinese and English heritage and raised in the UK, the artist grounds her practice in tactile experimentation, playful storytelling, and domestic memory, weaving lived experiences with fiction.
Her sculptures reflect on Chinese culture through a distinctly Malaysian perspective: hybrid animal figures drawn from Penang temple iconography stand alongside motifs inspired by everyday objects such as roof tiles, lightbulbs, and dressing mirrors. Many of her large-scale works are supported by structures in rattan and bamboo, materials historically traded between Malaysia and the UK during the colonial era and still widely used in households worldwide.
Highlights of the exhibition include The Headless Guardian, a totemic assemblage that meditates on the endurance of sacred architecture and the illusory nature of change; Pot Luck, a sculpture reimagining the traditional Chinese Cheongsam dress to explore identity through clothing; a limited edition aquatint created exclusively for the show; and works developed during the Decorative Surface Fellowship at the City & Guilds of London Art School, which reinterpret historical techniques such as faux bois, gilding, and japanning in a contemporary context.
In Outgrown, Poon reflects on the transformation of a Buddhist temple in Malaysia she visited regularly over two decades, which evolved from a modest and neglected place of worship into a crowded tourist attraction, complete with kitschy statues and fenced-off turtle ponds behind pay machines. A Coiled Connection combines imagery of her ancestral village in rural China with reptilian motifs drawn from Malaysian temples: geckos, monitor lizards, and snakes become symbols of resilience, persisting quietly amid the disruptions of globalisation. A new site-specific installation, responding to the shifting natural light and townhouse architecture of Tache’s gallery, recalls the domestic atmosphere of her grandfather’s home in Penang.
“As much as this exhibition is grounded in my own cultural experiences,” Poon explains, “I hope it invites visitors to reflect on the aspects of themselves they feel culturally connected to, and why. My aim is to spark moments of cross-cultural familiarity and create a space where belonging can emerge.”
“At Tache, our mission is to support and showcase emerging artists whose ambitious and distinctive practices resonate globally,” adds gallery director Lauren Fulcher. “We’re thrilled to present Alison Poon’s work, which is both poetic and experimental, and embodies the spirit of exploration central to our vision.”
