Fiona Tan - Depot

This summer BALTIC presents a survey exhibition and a major new commission by artist and filmmaker Fiona Tan. Born in 1966 in Pekan Baru, Indonesia, Tan works within the contested territory of representation: how we represent ourselves and the mechanisms that determine how we interpret the representation of others. Photography and film – made by herself, by others, or a combination of both – are her media; research, classification and the archive, her strategies. Her skilfully crafted and intensely human film and video installations explore history, time and our place within them.

The spectacular new commission DEPOT, made especially for the Level 4 gallery, re-imagines ‘Jonah the Giant Whale’, a preserved whale exhibited inside a lorry which toured across Europe from the 1950s to the mid-1970s. Tan will rebuild the 76-foot-long vehicle; however, it will now contain a cabinet of curiosities, inviting the viewer to climb aboard. Drawing on Newcastle’s forgotten history as a major whaling port, DEPOT is an exhibition within an exhibition, an immersive presentation that will also include a new film installation incorporating footage from the depots of natural history museums internationally. The exhibition continues on Level 3 with two further significant film installations from Tan’s career.