Public Engagements

EXHIBITIONS

GWANGJU, SOUTH KOREA

The ASEAN Bookstore group exhibition
Venue: Asia Culture Center, Gwangju, South Korea
Date: 23 Nov 2023 – 28 Jan 2024
Curator: Sungnil Noh (SOJANGGAK); supported by Korea Foundation & ASEAN Culture House.
Notes: The PLATES (Vol.1 – 4) project by Dee May Tan was selected by the curator as one of Malaysia’s seven representatives for the exhibition

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA

The ASEAN Bookstore showcase
Venue: Project Rent Old Town, Seongdong-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Date: 10 – 31 August 2023
Curator: Sungnil Noh (SOJANGGAK); supported by Korea Foundation & ASEAN Culture House

Photos, row above: The ASEAN Bookstore group exhibition at Asia Culture Center, Gwangju, South Korea. Photo credit: ASEAN Culture House

Photos, below: The ASEAN Bookstore showcase at Project Rent Old Town, Seongdong-gu, Seoul, South Korea. Photo credit: ASEAN Culture House

PLATES : Mise en Place Artist Studio – Open Day

Event: Rimbun Dahan Open Day
Venue: Rimbun Dahan Artist Residency and Arboretum, Kuang, Selangor, Malaysia
Date: 17 Oct 2021

The Artist Open Studio session was followed by a moderated conversation between resident artist (Dee May Tan) and Rimbun Dahan’s Director, Bilqis Hijjas.

EXHIBITION PARTICIPATION (INVITED)

Event: Tanah & Air

Invited artist (group exhibition)
Curators and organisers: Yee I-Laan (artist) and Beverly Yong (Rogue Arts SEA)
Location: The Godown Arts Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

PUBLIC WORKSHOPS

Title: Food Writing With a Purpose

Role: Commissioned workshop designer and key facilitator
Workshop description by organiser: Learn the basics of food writing–with a purpose. Using analogies of seeds and gardening as an outline, Tan Dee May will share her thought process in beginning a conversation with food. Instead of clinging on to a thesaurus, repurposing adjectives and cliché phrases of romanticism and exoticism overheard in a TV food programme, by the end of this workshop, you will begin to ask, or perhaps dive deeper, into seemingly simple, yet profound questions.
Organiser: Singapore Book Council
Format: Live online pre-registered workshop, ticketed event
Date: 20 Nov 2021

PRESENTATIONS

Academic Conferences

Presentation title: Picking Apart Food and Culture Narratives

Session: Rethinking “Traditions” of Representations
Role: Independent scholar/speaker

Event: The Makings of Art from Southeast Asia and the Problems of Colonial Legacies
Host: Center of Art and Design ITB (Institut Teknologi Bandung) Bandung Institute of Technology and the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV)
Venue: Center of Art and Design ITB, Bandung Institute of Technology, Bandung, Indonesia
Date: 8-10 Nov 2022
Keynote delivered by: Prof. Marieke Bloembergen (Leiden University)

Conference summary by organisers: The three-day conference is a collaboration between the Faculty of Art and Design, Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB), and the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV) and is organised in relation to the annual international conference on Aesthetics and the Sciences of Art in Bandung, Indonesia. The conference brings together artists, curators, and scholars from various disciplines to rethink artistic and curatorial practices and histories of framing and collecting objects from Southeast Asia; aiming to facilitate discussions about the continuing colonial legacies in knowledge production about art in the region as evidenced in the makings of exhibitions and the institutionalization of art historical narratives and collections.

Presentation title: Microaggressions and the portrayal of “disgust” in food writing

Session: Networks of Food, Literary and Otherwise’
Role: Independent scholar/speaker

Event: Biennial Food Conference ‘Food Movements/Moving Food’
Host/Venue: The Umbra Institute, Perugia, Italy
Date: 9-12 Jun 2022
Keynote delivered by: Prof. Krishnendu Ray (New York University)

Conference summary: People, food and agricultural products are in constant movement, affecting landscapes, material practices, and cultural representations. This conference aims to address what happens when people and food products move through regional, national, and international networks. What are the effects of these movements on local, regional, national, and international communities and cultures? What additional actions and reactions do they precipitate? How has the Covid pandemic altered (or shaped) these movements? In posing these questions, the conference seeks to understand continuities/discontinuities in current and past long-distance food exchanges, the relationships between “authentic” and diasporic foodways, the forced movement of agricultural workers and their crops in the face of climate change and a global pandemic, and the impact of economic and social disparities on current and future food movements.

PRESENTATIONS/SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

Art and Literary Events

Book launch: PLATES, Vol.4: Seeds

Event: Malaysian Writers Festival 2023
Organiser: Malaysian Writers Society
Venue: Jetty35, George Town, Penang, Malaysia
Date: 28-29 Oct 2023

Guest speaker: Forgotten Plates

Event: Nowhere Kitchen #12 – ‘Celebrating forgotten Malaysian cultural food – food that has cultural significance for customs, traditions and celebrations’
Organiser: Nowhere Kitchen
Venue: Temu House Art Space, Selangor, Malaysia
Date: 22 Jul 2023

Reclaiming Food Narratives

Event description: Food writing, when plated up insensitively, and peppered with sensationalised microaggressions, has the potential to (further) drive a divide between societies and cultures through the reinforcement of stereotypes. From ridiculed and feared to being celebrated and capitalised, Dee May looks at the portrayals of two of Southeast Asia’s most iconic fruits, durian and jackfruit. In this presentation, Dee May will present a variation of her ongoing independent research that looks into microaggressions in Eurocentric food writing and the portrayal of “disgust.”
Organiser: Malaysian Design Archive
Venue: Rumah Attap Library & Collective, Kampung Attap Library, The Zhongshan Building, Kuala Lumpur
Date: 4 Mar 2023

Beyond the Plate: Reclaiming Food Narratives

Role: Invited speaker
Event: BAKUL, everyday baskets Exhibition by Jennifer Linggi, produced by The Godowns Arts Centre
Description: Whether recognition of a native dish is in the form of an internationally acclaimed street food guide or headlines in Eurocentric media, a surge of pride and renewed interest in an otherwise everyday ingredient is likely to take place amongst its native makers and consumers. Why entertain, or worse—regurgitate, labels such as “disgusting,” “ethnic” and “exotic,” particularly when those narratives refer to the foods dear to our cultural identities? In this talk, Dee May will explore the alternatives to mainstream Eurocentric narratives—particularly those related to the food culture stories of Southeast Asian delicacies—by looking at arguably the most vilified of all: durian.
Venue: The Godown Arts Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Date: 28 Jan 2023

Lonely Vectors reading group (online)

Role: Feature discussant
Organiser: Singapore Art Museum
Date: Oct 2021

Image credit: Malaysia Design Archive

PANEL DISCUSSIONS

Food as a Conversation Starter: Panel Discussion by The Slow Press x PLATES Magazine

Role: Co-moderator and panel organiser
Description: At the Table with Further Reading Press (Indonesia), Petrikor Books (Indonesia), PLATES
Magazine (Malaysia) and The Slow Press (Singapore)
Event: Kuala Lumpur Art Book Fair 2024
Venue: Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (KLSCAH), Kuala Lumpur
Date: 7 Dec 2024

Community Voices: Research and Publication as Cultural Activism

Role: Panel speaker
Event: Bor(neo): The Project, Sharing Sessions #4
Organiser: Borneo Bengkel
Format: Live online, moderated panel presentation and discussion
Date: 19 Jun 2021

The Art of Zine Making

Role: Panel speaker
Event: Singapore Writers Festival 2019
Venue: The Arts House, Singapore
Date: 3 Nov 2019

Responding to Religious Differences Among Young People

Role: Panel speaker and Cumberland Lodge fellow representative
Event: AMAR Foundation Annual Conference 2017
Venue: Windsor Castle, Windsor, United Kingdom
Date: Sep 2017

New Media VS Traditional Media (Headline Panel)

Role: Panel speaker, speaking as Country Editor for regional luxury media title Lifestyle Asia
Event: Runway 2.0 Asia Pacific, supported by BMW
Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Date: Jun 2015

Image credit: Borneo Bengkel

MODERATED CONVERSATIONS

Sharing PLATES: Dee May in Conversation with Gareth Richards

Description by organiser: Books@Hikayat returns with another special event. Join Dee May Tan, the editor of PLATES, as she shares her reflections in an illustrated talk on the portrayal of ‘disgust’. In conversation with Gareth Richards, she also speaks about the possibilities of revisiting and reclaiming food culture narratives.
Host/Venue: Hikayat @ Gerakbudaya Bookstore, George Town, Penang, Malaysia
Date: 6 Oct 2023

Plates: in conversation with Bilqis Hijjas

Event: Rimbun Dahan Open Day
Venue: Rimbun Dahan Artist Residency and Arboretum, Kuang, Selangor, Malaysia
Date: 17 Oct 2021

Photos, left-right: ‘Sharing PLATES’ event poster – image credit: Hikayat and Gerakbudaya Bookshop (Penang); Rimbun Dahan Open Day, October 2021 poster – image credit: Rimbun Dahan

CURATED ART MARKETS

TRX Arts & Music Festival

Venue: Market Lane, The Exchange, TRX Kuala Lumpur
Curator: OUTLET KL
Date: April – May 2026

OUTLET KL x Reka Design Week

Venue: Pavilion Damansara, Kuala Lumpur
Date: September 2025

OUTLET KL Debut Art Fair

Venue: Campus Ampang, Kuala Lumpur

Atas/Not Atas Art Fair

Venue: Ground Floor Event Space, Ilham Tower (Ilham Gallery), Kuala Lumpur
Curator: Ilham Art Gallery Gift Store
Date: 2023