ART-PRESENTATION: Fiona-Tan Ascent

Fiona Tan, Ascent, Installation View, Photo: Peter Cox, Courtesy De Pont Museum of Contemporary ArtFiona Tan works within the contested territory of representation: how we represent ourselves and the mechanisms that determine how we interpret the representation of others. Photography and film – made by herself, by others, or a combination of both – are her mediums; research, classification and the archive, her strategies. Her skillfully crafted, moving and intensely human works, expanded film and video installations, explore history and time and our place within them.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: De Pont Museum Archive

Fiona Tan’s solo exhibition “Ascent”, at the De Pont Museum of Contemporary Art in Tilburg, except her new audiovisual and photographic installation “Ascent”, includes a selection of recent and existing works that resonate with Ascent’s consideration of photographic media. Fiona Tan created “Ascent” through a montage of over 4000 found still images of Mt. Fuji from all eras. Images were contributed by the public and were also selected from Izu Photo Museum’s own collection. The work is a rumination on this singular mountain and its ongoing relationship with human beings, a study of visual culture and a tribute to both photographic and film history. Ascent is at once a rumination on this singular mountain and its ongoing relationship with human beings, a study of visual culture, and a tribute to both photographic and film history. The resulting work considers the intertwinement of visibility and invisibility, distance and proximity, and the physical and the ephemeral. As Tan herself says: “These thousands of images encircle the mountain like a cloud – revealing it and hiding it at the same time”. Fictional narrative combines with documentary images, expanding the boundaries that divide stillness from movement, and pinpointing a unique area where photography and film meet and connect. Echoing the climb to the mountain’s peak, the narrative zigzags across narratives and histories, from ukiyo-e to the Second World War, from Western imperialism to contemporary tourism, from the dawn of photography to the present day. Ascent unfolds as a contemplative visual essay, reflecting upon the capacities of contemporary digital visual media while referencing iconic films such as Chris Marker’s “La Jetée”. “Ascent” consists of two parts: an audiovisual installation accompanied by its photographic pendant and the video “Ascent” (77 min). The exhibition at De Pont includes two other video installations and works on paper connected to these. “The Changeling” (2006) and “Depot” (2015) likewise balance on the borderline between still and moving images.

Info: De Pont Museum of Contemporary Art, Wilhelminapark 1, Tilburg, Duration: 11/2-11/6/17, Days & Hours: Tue-Wed & Fri-sun 11:00-17:00, Thu 11:00-20:00, www.depont.nl

Fiona Tan, Ascent (Film Still), 2016, Courtesy the artist, Frith Street Gallery-London and Wako Works of Art-Tokyo
Fiona Tan, Ascent (Film Still), 2016, Courtesy the artist, Frith Street Gallery-London and Wako Works of Art-Tokyo

 

 

Left: Fiona Tan, Ascent (Film Still), 2016, Courtesy the artist, Frith Street Gallery-London and Wako Works of Art-Tokyo. Right: Fiona Tan, The Changeling, 2006, Video installation, Courtesy the artist, Frith Street Gallery-London and Wako Works of Art-Tokyo
Left: Fiona Tan, Ascent (Film Still), 2016, Courtesy the artist, Frith Street Gallery-London and Wako Works of Art-Tokyo. Right: Fiona Tan, The Changeling, 2006, Video installation, Courtesy the artist, Frith Street Gallery-London and Wako Works of Art-Tokyo

 

 

Fiona Tan, Ascent (Film Still), 2016, Courtesy the artist, Frith Street Gallery-London and Wako Works of Art-Tokyo
Fiona Tan, Ascent (Film Still), 2016, Courtesy the artist, Frith Street Gallery-London and Wako Works of Art-Tokyo

 

 

Fiona Tan, Ascent (Film Still), 2016, Courtesy the artist, Frith Street Gallery-London and Wako Works of Art-Tokyo
Fiona Tan, Ascent (Film Still), 2016, Courtesy the artist, Frith Street Gallery-London and Wako Works of Art-Tokyo

 

 

Ascent, Installation View, Photo: Peter Cox, Courtesy De Pont Museum of Contemporary Art
Ascent, Installation View, Photo: Peter Cox, Courtesy De Pont Museum of Contemporary Art