ERIKA TAN
PIDGIN
interrupted transmission
Evening Preview Wednesday 28 November
Exhibition Wednesday 28 November to Saturday 21 December
10.00 to 5.00 Monday to Saturday
open to the public admission free
pidgin [pij´in] 1 a minimal second language that is a combination of the
vocabulary and pronunciation patterns of two or more languages, created when
groups speaking mutually unintelligible languages have a need to communicate,
as for trade or negotiations; grammatically, it usually is a simplified form
of one of the languages. 2 loosely, any simplified or abridged form of a
language used by non-native speakers. (Said to be from a Chinese
mispronunciation of the word business within early Chinese Treaty ports.)
Combining sounds, texts, images and icons from a number of places around the
world, 'Pidgin' by Erika Tan offsets the apparently homogenising tendencies
of an increasingly globalised economy with a vision of cultural interaction
forged out of difference and local inflection. 'Pidgin' becomes the metaphor
for exploring the slippage, invention, creative adaptation, flexibility and
fluidity of communication exchanges, technological development and the
artist's creative process.
Projected within the space, sequences of images and texts, programmed on DVD,
are brought into seemingly random conjunction, creating an interplay of
influences and idioms that implies a kind of modern vernacular language (a
technological pidgin) in the making. Around these projection screens, bursts
of sound are triggered either interrupting or illuminating these unfolding
hybrid forms while lending a more spatial, sculptural dimension to the
installation as a whole. These fragmentary, shifting patterns create an
impression of language and culture as something very much in flux, finding
points of contact and connection but just as likely to break apart or mutate.
Offset from the projections is a control (computer) and research (documents)
space which provides the backbone to the work. The control space makes
transparent the software/hardware package that facilitates the technological
pidginisation of the work, whilst the research space records the
heterogeneous approach to soliciting dialogue and communication between
various disciplines, professions and contacts.
Erika Tan is a British-based artist and curator from Singapore whose work has
evolved from an interest in anthropology and the moving image. Her work is
often informed by specific cultural, geographical or physical contexts,
exploring different media to create situations that excite, provoke,
question, confront and invite comments from an audience. Erika Tan exhibited
as part of EAST 2000 at Norwich Gallery, and her work was included in Cities
on the Move at The Hayward Gallery. She has exhibited both in the UK and
abroad. The forthcoming catalogue records previous projects the artist has
undertaken and acts as an expansion of the ideas triggered by PIDGIN through
conversations with Simon Willmoth, Norwich School of Art and Design and Dr.
Nikos Papastergiadis, Head of Centre for Ideas, VCA, University of Melbourne.
Pidgin is a Film and Video Umbrella touring exhibition curated and produced
in association with Norwich Gallery and Open Eye, Liverpool. Funded by the
National Touring Programme of the Arts Council of England.
Special thanks is given to the following for help on the project:
Anthony Key, Sara Thomas, Mayling To, Phil Ashcroft, susan pui san lok,
Julian Stallabrass, Sacha Papagno , Diana Yeh, Alana Jelinek, Juliette Brown,
Edsel Tham, Goron McKenna, Kerry Olsen,Grace Lodge, Stuart Parkinson, Lucy
Molleson, Julia Hawkins, Shatha Al-AniJustin, Mrs Meng, Sean Wu, Boetimann
Issack, Dieneke Oestindier, Masturah Alatas, Ulrika Bjorksten, Tomoko
Kuriowa, Shoko Miyagawa, Masuri Komatso, Nikos Mavros, Hana Sakuma, Meng Xiao
Shu, Xi Jian Jun, Alecia, Pat Naldi, Phyn Cyn, Yusif Naer, Sophie Perrson,
Vula Bolou, Yorgos Yerardos, Heidi/Nic/Fay and Leong Tan, Dan Cardew,
Elizabeth Le Moine, Jananne Al-Ani, Neil McConnon, Simon Willmoth, Neville
Bounds, Nikos Papastergiadis, Keith/Bevis/Caroline/Mike and Steve @ FVU,
and all @ Norwich Gallery.
Also to The Beacon Pigeon Club who welcomed me to their Friday evening
sessions and to all the Pidgin and Creole and other specialists who responded
to my email questions: Proff. Philip Baker, K.David Jackson, Hans denB, Jeff
Siegel, Stephen Mathews, Adam Paliwala, Vincent de Rooij, Peter Bryant, Peter
Patrick, Proff. Michael D. Picone, Louis-Jean Calvet, Jacques Arends, Ian
Smith, Jack Sidnel, Jim Park, Tom Slone, Mark Sebba, Loreto Todd, Vincent O
Cooper, Mikael Parkvall, Sidney Joubert-Taytelbaum, Hazel Simmons-McDonald,
John Gledhill, Alex-Louise Tesonneau, James A Walker, Colin Sheehan, George
Lang, Alan Mole.
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