Fiona Tan

" It started off as a search, now it feels as if I'm constantly in search of my search". Fiona Tan


Fiona Tan was born in Indonesia in 1966 and currently works in Amsterdam. She is a video artist that creates a portrait of humanity. She composes both actual footage and pictures to create an unbias portrait that record time's passage. She uses her work to show you a culture that you wouldn't think about. Through her work you are able to indentify with the other culture and learn to see that they are similar to me and you. She searches for the truth and the true nature behind all human beings.


Her most well known project was created for the UCLA Hammer Museum in 2004 in conjunction with both the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York. The project called "Correction" was a three hour long video portrait of both prisoners and guards at four prisons, three in Illinois and one in California. She had them stand still looking straight into the camera. By using control she was able to capture the slightest of movements made by the guards and inmates. It was projected on six screens and were placed to create a Panopticon, which was designed to watch over prisoners in the 1700s.


Tan creates her work by using photos and images and video stills or video in a portrait style. She places her figures in vertical position almost like a typical portrait. Her style is that of a simple documentary that shows no bias to the final piece. This allows the viewer to bring their own thoughts and ideas to the piece. The projections are very simplistic and straightforward for Tan's ability to control the shot allows the true nature of the person to come through.

"blurs the line between film and photography - between the moving and the static image - and between viewer and viewed" Art Press




Further Reading:
tele-journeys, MIT List Visual Arts Center Cambridge, MA 2002 p. 30-31, 39-40

Rollig, Stella, :Video as a Female Terrain Springer-Verlag / Wien 2000 p. 190-195

Afterimage 33 no2 52-3 S/O 2005 Inmate Intimacy? Fiona Tan: Correction

Art In America 99 no10 176 N 2005 Fiona Tan at the New Museum of Contemporary Art

Art Press no316 74-5 O 2005 FIONA TAN

Websites:
http://www.hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/82/
http://www.frithstreetgallery.com/tan.html
http://www.universes-in-universe.de/car/venezia/bien49/plat1/e-tan.htm
http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue2/anothertimespace.htm

Public Exhibitions:
http://www.artfacts.net/index.php/pageType/artistInfo/artist/12499