Frith Street Gallery

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FIONA TAN: PROVENANCE

FIONA TAN: PROVENANCE

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
27 August – 19 October 2008

Artist Fiona Tan (b. 1966) was born in Indonesia and grew up in Australia. She has lived and worked in Amsterdam since 1988. For the Rijksmuseum she made the installation Provenance.

“For this commission I looked at the 17th-century portraits in the Rijksmuseum collection. I find the most interesting paintings of this period are portraits in which the subjects are painted in a completely ordinary, honest and plain way. I immersed myself in their history, and what I noticed was how tangible the past is in a city like Amsterdam: the buildings, the street names, even the names and appearance of friends.

Provenance comprises six filmed portraits of contemporary Amsterdammers that make absorbing viewing. I composed and lit them with especial care, like my 17th-century examples. As I was filming, I asked myself if it’s possible to look at a film as if at a painting, and if so what that would mean, and then what it is that makes a portrait successful.

The installation is accompanied by a publication that describes the provenance of the portraits and links them to the 17th century, to Amsterdam, the people in the portraits and my own personal life.”
Fiona Tan