Erika Tan
陈丽可
Born1967 (age 56–57)
Singapore
NationalitySingaporean
EducationBA (King's College, Cambridge);

BA (Beijing Film Academy);

MFA (Central Saint Martins School of Art)
Known forInstallation art, video art, film
MovementContemporary art
Awards2012: Samsung Digital Art Plus Prize Nominee
2001–5: ACME Fire Station Residency
1998: Arts Foundation Digital Arts Fellowship
Websitehttps://www.erikatan.net/

Erika Tan (Chinese: 陈丽可; pinyin: Chén Líkě; born 1967) is a London-based Singaporean contemporary artist and curator whose research-led practice emerges from her interests in anthropology and the moving image.[1][2][3] Her recent research examines the postcolonial and transnational, working with archival artefacts, exhibition histories, received narratives, contested heritage, subjugated voices, and the movement of ideas, people and objects.[2] She is a lecturer at the Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London.[4]

Tan's work has been exhibited internationally, including Cities on the Move at the Hayward Gallery, London in 1999, the 2006 Singapore Biennale, Thermocline of Art: New Asian Waves at the ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe in 2007, and Persistent Visions at NUS Museum, Singapore, and Vargas Museum, Philippines from 2009 to 2010.[5]

More recently, she has participated in exhibitions such as the Artist and Empire exhibition by Tate and National Gallery Singapore from 2016 to 2017, the Diaspora Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2017, and As the West Slept at the World Trade Center, New York in 2019.[5]

Education and personal life

Tan studied Social Anthropology and Archaeology at King's College, Cambridge, and Film Directing at the Beijing Film Academy.[6] This was followed by an Advanced Diploma in Film & Video and a Master in Fine Art at the Central Saint Martins School of Art, London.[6] She is currently based in London.[4]

Career

In 2014, Tan would have a solo exhibition at NUS Museum titled Come Cannibalise Us, Why Don’t You?[7] Emerging from an ongoing discussion between NUS Museum curators and Tan since 2009, the exhibition featured an installation re-visiting and adapting artefacts and writings from the exhibition Camping and Tramping Through The Colonial Archive: The Museum in Malaya (2011-2013) alongside newer film, sculpture, and works on paper developed by Tan.[7] Guided by notions of aesthetic cannibalism, the installation examines the contingent rules and contexts of the colonial museum in Malaya as it came to be framed in the 19th century, alongside its continuations in the postcolonial present.[7]

In 2015, while artist-in-residence at the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, Tan would develop Halimah-the-Empire-Exhibition-weaver-who-died-whilst-performing-her-craft.[8][9] The Lab at NTU CCA was utilised as an exhibition space, a film studio and the site of a live "broadcast" debate between two competing teams.[8][9] Tan's project sought to examine the history of the expert weaver, Halimah Binti Abdullah, who had travelled from Johore to London in 1924 for her skills to be exhibited at the British Empire Exhibition, only to contract pneumonia and die in London.[1][4]

At the Artist and Empire: (En)countering Colonial Legacies exhibition at National Gallery Singapore from October 2016–March 2017, Tan's commissioned installation, The Weavers Lament Part I – IV would be shown.[10] Building on her research about the weaver Halimah, the installation featured digitally manipulated video, strips of textile and archival images.[10]

In 2017, Tan's video works Apa Jika, The Mis-placed Comma (I, II, III) were developed for the digital long-term exhibition, unrealised, at National Gallery Singapore.[11] Taking from the physical site of the gallery, Tan filmed her work before the museum had opened to the public in November 2015, with scenes set in exhibition spaces while works were still being hung.[11] The work would then be exhibited in Venice, Italy, as part of the work The "Forgotten" Weaver at the Diaspora Pavilion, a collateral event at the Venice Biennale 2017.[11][12] The "Forgotten" Weaver brings together two works dealing with the weaver Halimah, including Apa Jika, The Mis-placed Comma (I, II, III) and an installation taking the form of a loom, with white threads forming a weave-like structure.[1] In 2018, the Wolverhampton Art Gallery would re-stage the Diaspora Pavilion, featuring seven of the original 19 artists, including Tan's The "Forgotten" Weaver.[12]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Said, Nabilah (16 May 2017). "Singapore artists chart new waters at Venice Biennale". The Straits Times. Archived from the original on 17 October 2020. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
  2. 1 2 "Artist and researcher Erika Tan to create new work for Newnham's 150th anniversary". Newham College, University of Cambridge. 15 March 2021. Archived from the original on 29 April 2021. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
  3. ↑ 黄, 向京 (10 May 2017). "The 57th Venice Biennale Singapore Pavilion opens (第57届威尼斯双年展新加坡馆开幕)". Lianhe Zaobao (联合早报). Archived from the original on 17 October 2020. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
  4. 1 2 3 Yusof, Helmi (12 May 2017). "The weight of history in Venice". The Business Times. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
  5. 1 2 "Erika Tan". University of the Arts London. Archived from the original on 16 January 2021. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
  6. 1 2 "Erika Tan". Luxonline. Archived from the original on 17 October 2020. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
  7. 1 2 3 Tan, Erika (2014). Come Cannibalise Us, Why Don't You? / Sila mengakanibalkan kami, mahu tak?. Singapore: NUS Museum. ISBN 9789810791285.
  8. 1 2 "Artist-in-residence: Erika Tan". NTU Centre for Contemporary Art. 6 July 2015. Archived from the original on 17 October 2020. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
  9. 1 2 "Erika Tan, Halimah-the-Empire-Exhibition-weaver-who-died-whilst-performing-her-craft". Gillman Barracks. 14 July 2015. Archived from the original on 27 April 2021. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
  10. 1 2 Kwan, Annie Jael (2016). "Artist and Empire: (En)countering Colonial Legacies". ArtAsiaPacific. Archived from the original on 29 April 2021. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
  11. 1 2 3 Said, Nabilah (17 August 2017). "National Gallery launches digital extension to long-term exhibitions". The Straits Times. Archived from the original on 18 October 2020. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
  12. 1 2 Harris, Gareth (5 February 2018). "The Diaspora pavilion—a hit at last year's Venice Biennale—is reborn in Wolverhampton". The Art Newspaper. Archived from the original on 1 December 2020. Retrieved 27 April 2020.

Further reading

  • Willmoth, Simon (2002). Erika Tan PIDGIN interrupted transmission. London: Film and Video Umbrella. ISBN 0 9538634 84.
  • Tan, Erika (2009). Persistent Visions. Singapore: NUS Museum. ISBN 9810838565.
  • Tan, Erika (2014). Come Cannibalise Us, Why Don't You? / Sila mengakanibalkan kami, mahu tak?. Singapore: NUS Museum. ISBN 9789810791285.
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