Fiona Tan: Rise and Fall

Where: Sackler Gallery

When: until January 16, 2011

My other posts have all been about exhibits I've seen on my lunch hour, but I took a day off of work, and decided to spend part of my time at this exhibit. It features three videos: one is about an hour in length, the other two are both over 20 minutes, so a lunch hour is just not enough time to see this entire show. If lunch times are all you have, pick one of the 20 minute shows (I watched all of "Lapse of Memory" but got a bit weary after only a few minutes of "Rise and Fall"), check out the photographs and spend as much time as you have left at "May You Live in Interesting Times," the hour-long video. Frankly, it's worth a return trip to see everything.

I was struck by the series of photographs of the West Pier at Brighton. Although the pier was built long after the Regency period, I could not but be reminded of Lydia Bennett and her trip to the seaside - those glittering dreams of romance with a handsome officer crumbled in the end, just as the West Pier does in these photos. In life as in literature, things have a way of falling apart.

The film I watched in its entirety, "Lapse of Memory," was strangely interesting. It's one man, in an empty house, moving through his day. Is he mentally ill? How does he survive? What is his relationship to the house? None of these questions are answered, but the film is so engrossing that it doesn't matter. I was wondering what would happen next throughout the whole video. Note that there is a sign advising that this is shown in low light. This is actual low light, meaning that it's dim, but you can still see, unlike the Hirschhorn, where low light means pitch blackness. Sketches and a story board are also on display.

"May You Live in Interesting Times" is a series of conversations with Chinese people living in Indonesia. It's amazing how small our world has become. People, for a variety of reasons, now live in places where they were not born, in different countries, in different cultures, in different climates. How they adapt to their new surroundings is fascinating. What do they keep from their original lives; what do they discard? How do they blend in to their new environment, without abandoning their identities?

Verdict: Terrific show and well worth a visit. There's lots to see here, so you may want to set aside time for more than one look.