Fiona Tan

The work of Fiona Tan (b. 1966, Pekanbaru, Indonesia) questions the relationship between personal history and collective history, the role of memory and the existence of the past in the present. Filmed on the Swedish island of Gotland, Island (2008) explores the relationship between the moving image and memory, which are each capable of transporting us to different places and times. The work is composed of a series of moments that Tan describes as ‘anti-cinematographic’. Tan pictures the island and its desolate landscapes, its trees distorted by the wind, and its heavy skies in a series of timeless and almost motionless fixed, repetitive long takes. A voiceover relates the story of a woman who came to the island to be alone, for a period of temporary retreat. The narrator discloses the intimate thoughts of this absent figure, her distant memories, her desire for exile, her often ambiguous relationship with the world and with time. The work underlines the gap between narrative and film and the way in which the two interact.