"Pidgin: Interrupted Transmission -- A Multimedia Installation by Erika Tan"
2002-03-09 until 2002-04-20
Aspex Gallery
Portsmouth, , UK United Kingdom

The dictionary definition of 'pidgin', is a Chinese corruption of the English term 'business', used to describe a colloquial language made up of elements of two or more other languages. This multimedia installation by Erika Tan combines sound, texts, images and icons from a number of places around the world.

PIDGIN 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 a metaphor for exploring the slippage, invention, creative adaption, flexibility and fluidity of communication exchanges, technological development and the artist's creative process.

PIDGIN is a Film and Video Umbrella Touring Exhibition in association with Norwich Gallery. Supported by National Touring Programme of The Arts Council of England.

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 accompanying catalogue records previous projects the artist has undertaken and acts as an expansion of the ideas triggered by PIDGIN through conversations with Simon Wilmoth, Norwich School of Art and an essay by Dr. Nikos Papastergiadis, Head of Centre for Ideas, VCA, University of Melbourne.

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