Moments of Transformation: Alison Wing Yin Poon's 'A Constructed Home' at Tache Gallery, London

Portrait of Alison Poon (2025). Photograph by Reliant Imaging. Courtesy of the artist and Tache Gallery.

By GRACE PALMER December 12, 2025

Intimate, contemplative, and innovative, Alison Wing Yin Poon’s debut exhibition celebrates the remarkable talent flourishing among London’s emerging artists. Situated in Fitzrovia, Tache Gallery's fifth show is distinctive and exceptional, reaffirming their fierce advocacy for undiscovered talent. Titled 'A Constructed Home', Poon’s exhibition explores the subtleties of mixed heritage and cultural authenticity. Drawing from her Chinese-Malaysian and English background, Poon’s diasporic experiences inspire her work, driven by the desire to “take ownership of these different cultural parts of myself”. By synthesising two years of work, ‘A Constructed Home’ combines sculptures and etchings to offer a profound reflection on what defines ‘home’. Tache’s intimate space provides the ideal environment for Poon to deconstruct and reinterpret symbols of ‘home’, dividing the space into domestic and architectural realms. Speaking with Alison Wing Yin Poon, it’s clear how deeply personal her inaugural show is, both professionally and creatively.

Alison Poon, A Constructed Home (2025), installation view by Sergey Novikov. Courtesy of Tache Gallery. 

Upon entering the gallery, you are welcomed by The Headless Guardian, an extraordinary sculpture that commands attention. Defying gravity, Poon’s found porcelain vase precariously rests atop a rattan stool; a structural defiance that frequently appears across the exhibition. As Poon shared in our discussion, this coalescence of structurally incompatible materials is part of the “enjoyable challenge” of her designs; she adopts an additive and layered approach rather than keeping these materials separate. Rattan and porcelain, both prominent Malaysian exports, serve as important cultural signifiers in her work. The interaction between these two materials, both physically and culturally, reflects Poon’s diasporic experiences: “When you have a mixed background, they’re the cards that you’re dealt.” It is only through the challenge of merging these ‘material’ foundations that one begins to “navigate those histories and backgrounds.” Stretching floor to ceiling, The Headless Guardian pays homage to traditional Malaysian temples, with the plywood ‘roof’ emblematic of the xieshan (hip-and-gable) temple design. Yet, Poon obscures traditional aesthetics by incorporating an exposed lightbulb that dangles from the ceiling. In her view, this conflation of the historical with the modern reflects the overlapping histories that shape her mixed heritage. Artefacts of the past are integral to her Chinese-Malaysian identity, but her engagement with this culture has been one of “transformation”, evolving alongside her. Poon’s artworks are not mere retrospectives on a history she feels detached from; instead, they represent a means of constructing a home built from both the old and the new, the cultural and the personal.

Alison Poon, The Headless Guardian (2024). Photograph by Reliant Imaging. Courtesy of the artist and Tache Gallery. 

One of the standout pieces of the exhibition, and the point from which Poon began curating her works, Safety of the Sink, hangs with quiet reverence at the back of the second room. Illuminated by the window roundel above, this quotidian object speaks to the shared experience of domestic spaces. For Poon, incorporating these themes served as an access point, bridging different cultures through “the ways that people inhabit their spaces.” The sculpture's wooden frame reminds me of a mirror hung above a sink, and the invocation of 'safety' in the work’s title invites viewers to uncover the self through its relationship with the everyday. However, it is in the object’s glazed stoneware painting where Poon inserts her own engagement with familiarity. Precisely painted, the central frame depicts a floral still life, emanating a delicate pink glow. This shade of pink dominates the exhibition, visible in her paintings, porcelain pieces and even the gallery walls. During my tour of the space, Poon revealed the significance of this colour, recalling how her grandparents’ Malaysian home had striking pink roof tiles that captivated her imagination since childhood. While this exhibition encourages self-reflection among its attendees, it is primarily a personal and intimate display that allows Poon to “own the different parts of [her]self.”

Alison Poon, Safety of the Sink (2024), installation view by Sergey Novikov. Courtesy of Tache Gallery. 

The de/reconstructive process is one that “wilfully takes apart what is or is supposed to be and arranges it in ways that suggest what it could be.” I reflected on these words, echoed by Lucy Lippard in her 1976 essay The Pink Glass Swan, throughout my visit to Tache. The frayed rattan opening of Window into the Wood, the porcelain cracks and ‘repairs’ in The Headless Guardian and the tiny cat's feet in Pot Luck, situate these pieces in an interstitial stage of existence – almost complete, almost functional. Through destroying and recreating her found objects, Poon is not concerned with “creating a finite end”. Instead, she embraces an infinitesimal approach, viewing de/reconstruction as a “moment of transformation, a moment of change.” This non-constrictive perspective is evident in the way Poon discusses her photographic ‘archive’ - images referenced in etchings like Goh Bro and Walkway of Change. She explains, “I will sit on these photographs for a long time and circle back to them. They are not consciously taken with the intention of becoming artworks.” Poon’s work is not rooted in pre-existing ideas; rather, it remains comfortable in flux, without the need to quantify each part of itself.

Undoubtedly, ‘A Constructed Home’ is a love letter to found objects. Poon adopts a playful attitude to her sculptural pieces, both in her quest for the ‘perfect’ object at London’s flea markets and through the narratives she unravels from them. Appreciating objects that “have an age to them”, Poon is less concerned with the shiny and new. Instead, she seeks out objects that have lived lives, giving her the space to impart her own stories, her own versions of history. In particular, rattan stools are a favourite amongst Poon’s collected objects. She claims, “I like to use stools because they’re ambiguous in their function, and they have that space for interpretation. Are they objects? Are they creatures? Are they something to be sat upon? Does it elevate?” Through these questions and interpretations, Poon reveals her hidden histories.

Alison Poon, Detail from The Headless Guardian (2024). Photograph by Reliant Imaging. Courtesy of the artist and Tache Gallery. 

Alison Wing Yin Poon’s debut show is a masterful exploration of cultural identity through the possibilities of found object sculptures. Recently graduating in 2024 with her MA in Fine Art from the City & Guilds of London Art School, Poon has found solace in the “supportive, creative freedom” that Tache Gallery has provided her. Speaking with the director, Lauren Fulcher relayed the gallery's mission to “support London’s best and brightest emerging artists at the most critical point in their early-career development". It is clear that ‘A Constructed Home’ has given Poon the momentum to progress, both in her creative practice and research. I look forward to seeing what Alison Wing Yin Poon accomplishes next, as she so eloquently expressed at the end of our discussion, “it is only the beginning.”

I want to express my considerable appreciation to Alison Wing Yin Poon for her engaging discussion and for taking the time to share her exhibition with me. I would also like to extend my thanks to Tache Gallery and Pelham Communications for facilitating this meeting.

‘Alison Wing Yin Poon: A Constructed Home’ runs between November 13 and December 16 at Tache Gallery, London. WM