| Fiona Tan |
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born 1966 in Pekan Baru, ID lives and works in Amsterdam, NL, and Berlin, DE When one becomes more acquainted with Fiona Tan's oeuvre, one notices that the title of her work Slapstick, similar to her projection Saint Sebastian, puts the viewer on the wrong track. The 'slapstick' film genre, which is primarily linked to major figures from the silent film era like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, also relies on physical actions that need no dialogue but have a certain degree of comedy to them. Famous examples include tripping, which Keaton varies superbly in nearly all of his comedies and which artist Francis Alÿs has also used in his video installation The Last Clown. Other classic slapstick routines include slipping on a banana peel or throwing cakes and pies. Tan's single-channel video installation Slapstick, one of her earliest works, is a loop that shows a person-in this case, herself-falling brutally on her back from a height of about one meter. In contrast to the associations one might have with the title of this work, this scene is not at all funny. [...]
Karsten Löckemann fast forward 2. The Power of Motion Media Art Sammlung Goetz Editors: Ingvild Goetz and Stephan Urbaschek Ostfildern, Hatje Cantz, 2010  Fiona Tan, Slapstick, 1998 Single-channel video installation on monitor, color, sound Edition 1/4 10" Loop  Fiona Tan, Saint Sebastian, 2001 2-channel video installation with hanging screen, color, sound Edition 4/4 Loop |