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Art News:
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 15,
2010
Media Only: Deborah Galyan
(202) 633-0504
Amanda Williams (202) 633-0271
Media
Web site: http://www.asia.si.edu/press
Sackler Gallery Presents First Major U.S. Exhibition
of
Contemporary Artist Fiona Tan
Video and Photo Installations Explore Themes of Modern Culture and
Memory
The first major U.S.
exhibition of internationally renowned contemporary artist Fiona Tan will be on
view at the Sackler Gallery Sept. 25 - Jan. 16, 2011. "Fiona Tan: Rise and
Fall" includes video installations and photographs exploring the individual's
place in a world increasingly shaped by global culture. By integrating archival
film footage and photographs, original location shooting and the spoken word,
her works question the relationship among images, narrative and memory. The
works on view invite reflection on the role of the recorded image in the
experience of time and the construction of individual identity.
"The exhibition
is largely autobiographical," said Carol Huh, curator of contemporary art and
organizerof the exhibition at the Freer and Sackler galleries.
"Through Tan's works, we gain a sense of her own personal journey through the
world."
Tan's most recent video installation, Rise and Fall (2009),
specially commissioned for this exhibition and filmed in Canada, Belgium
and the Netherlands, focuses on an older and younger woman. Filmed in striking
locales, Tan emphasizes the intimacy of place, the simplicity of daily acts and
the mutability of time to evoke the interwoven lives of these two women - scenes
in gardens, caresses between lovers, the acts of sleeping, reading and dressing.
The viewer wonders if the women are, in fact, the same, as if each embodies the
dreams of the other.
Other video works on display include Provenance
(2008) and A Lapse of Memory (2007), which draw on the traditions of
17th-century Dutch and 19th-century British architecture to explore western
notions of Asia. The photo installation, The Changeling (2006), compiles more
than 300 archival photos of Japanese schoolgirls in an examination of how
personal narratives shift over a lifetime.
"In her beautiful and
evocative way, Tan conveys the flux of life," said Huh. "We are always
surrounded by images, and those images become the basis for our constantly
shifting memories and the ways in which we represent ourselves."
Born
in 1966 in Indonesia to a Chinese-Indonesian father and Australian-Scottish
mother, Tan eventually settled in Amsterdam to study at the Gerrit Rietveld
Academie and the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten. She began exhibiting in
the early 1990s and was most recently recognized for her important contributions
as the Dutch representative at the 2009 Venice Biennale. In addition to other
international biennials and group exhibitions, Tan has participated in recent
solo exhibitions at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam in the Netherlands (2008), the
Royal Institute for British Architects in England (2007) and the Villa Arson
Nice in France (2002).
"Fiona Tan: Rise and Fall" is organized by
the Vancouver Art Gallery. The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery will be the only U.S.
venue for the exhibition, which will also travel to the Galerie de L'UQAM in
Montréal.
A 125-page illustrated exhibition catalog, produced by the
Vancouver Art Gallery and the Aargauer Kunsthaus in Switzerland, includes essays
by five scholars, each on a different work from the exhibition.
"Fiona Tan: Rise and Fall" is supported by the Mondriaan Foundation in
Amsterdam, with additional support from the Netherland-America Foundation.
The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, located at 1050 Independence Avenue S.W.,
and the adjacent Freer Gallery of Art, located at 12th Street and Independence
Avenue S.W., are on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Hours are 10 a.m. to
5:30 p.m. every day, except Dec. 25, and admission is free. The galleries are
located near the Smithsonian Metrorail station on the Blue and Orange lines. For
more information about the Freer and Sackler galleries and their exhibitions,
programs and other events, the public may visit www.asia.si.edu. For general
Smithsonian information, the public may call (202) 633-1000 or TTY (202)
633-5285.
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Rise and
Fall, 2009 (still), Fiona Tan, two-channel video installation, 22 minutes. Image Credit:
Courtesy of the Artist
and Frith Street Gallery, London
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Freer and Sackler Galleries | 1050 Independence
Avenue, SW | Washington | DC |
20560
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