Tomorrow: Fiona Tan

On 16 April an exhibition by Indonesian artist Fiona Tan called “Tomorrow” (2005) opened in the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow and it will not end until 27 September 2010, which amounts to a duration of almost 5 months. This is an excessive time period for a show that contains only one small two-screen video installation and a bench in front of it that accommodates four people.

It is unclear why the colossal expanse of the main hall of GOMA has been utilised to present this single art work. For the next 24 weeks drapes will block the light that normally floods into the main hall through the many large windows. Domestic and international visitors who enter the gloomy conditions of the hall to watch Tan’s video will not be aware of the breathtaking architectural beauty that surrounds them.

The elegant, neo-classical Royal Exchange building is considered to be architect David Hamilton’s masterpiece and dates from 1829 when it was built around an existing Grecian-style mansion house which had been erected by tobacco merchant William Cunningham in 1778. Expanding the property back then was achieved at a cost of approximately £50,000.

The rear addition, which was built on what must have been a huge garden, contains the main hall. Perhaps the exhibition organisers were concerned that the richly decorated arched ceiling would distract visitors from viewing Fiona Tan’s continuous footage of adolescent school children standing in a row.

Despite this being Fiona Tan’s first exhibition in Scotland, she has forfeited the golden opportunity that was given to her by foolishly choosing to present just one artwork. This scant offering is eloquently described in an A4 information sheet provided by Culture and Sport Glasgow:

“In an unhurried and deliberate panning movement the camera surveys a continuous row of high-school students. A large screen shows their individual expressions in close-up. Viewed like this, the young faces gain significance and a monumental, cinematic quality….Hanging in front of this is a smaller screen, which shows a slowly sweeping, broad picture of the school group. This is filmed with the same steady and silent camera pan from left to right.”

The curators of GOMA have a moral obligation to promote the creation of contemporary art by supporting the careers of budding and established artists seeking to showcase their work while at the same time maximising the public’s access to and enjoyment of the arts.

This will only be fulfilled if decision making is routinely undertaken to fully exploit the tremendous amount of space offered by GOMA. If Glasgow is to truly become a global player in contemporary art then it must offer a regularly changing visual feast of creativity.

Comment continues in second post......

Six weeks is a reasonable timeframe. Apportioning more than 5 months for one small installation by one artist in the main hall amounts to more than laziness, it is detrimental to the health and growth of our creative community.

The word “exhibition” is described in the Oxford Concise English Dictionary as “a public display of items in an art gallery or museum”. If an artist is fortunate enough to be given a solo show then they must provide a minimum number of works which are representative of the breadth of his or her creative output. To respond by providing just one item, created several years earlier, makes a mockery of the people of Scotland. We deserve better than that.