Visual Artist Su-Mei Tse Presents Floating Memories, a New Multi

“Delicate, thoughtful, intuitive, and … constantly surprising”
–Gardner Museum Curator Pieranna Cavalchini (2009)
“Beautiful, soulful…utterly hypnotic”
–Benjamin Genocchio, The New York Times (2005)
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Visual Artist Su-Mei Tse Presents Floating Memories, a New Multi-Media
Installation, at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Golden Lion award-winning artist Su-Mei Tse unveils a
new sound installation inspired by the Gardner Museum
Photo by Jean-Lou Majerus
“Su-Mei Tse: Floating Memories” ▪ Artist-in-Residence Exhibition
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston ▪ July 16th through October 18th, 2009
BOSTON MA ▪ JULY 15, 2009 ▪ In 2007, Luxembourg- and Berlin-based visual artist Su-Mei Tse lived at the Isabella
Stewart Gardner Museum, drawing inspiration from the museum’s rich collection and history.
This summer, the Golden Lion award-winner returns to the Gardner to present a new solo exhibition and sound
installation: Floating Memories, on view July 16th through October 18th 2009. Programming during the run of the
exhibition will include artist and gallery talks, a book signing, and a musical performance and will feature Su-Mei
Tse, in addition to visual artists Lee Mingwei and Cliff Evans, songwriter and performer Niko Hafkenscheid,
gallery owner Peter Blum (Peter Blum Gallery, New York), curator Enrico Lunghi, Director, Mudam Museum,
Luxembourg, and Pieranna Cavalchini, Curator of Contemporary Art, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston.
Su-Mei Tse first emerged on the international contemporary arts scene in 2003, winning critical acclaim and a
Golden Lion award for Best National Participation at the 50th Venice Biennale for her first show, Air Conditioned,
where she showed the work Echo, among others, for the first time. Her work as a visual artist is also informed by her
musical background and her training as a classical cellist. This part of her training has enabled the artist to take up
music and sound—not as themes in her work, but as tools and languages through which to express her ideas. Her
work often merges sound, images, and sculpture into a single poetic form. Tse conveys a deep appreciation for craft
and gesture in her work. Tse’s work also has the pared-down aesthetic quality of minimalism—with an emotional
charge. Tse’s video, sculpture, and sound installations, in particular, have been compared to haiku poetry for their
elegant and spartan imagery. In recent years, many of her works have sprung from a dialogue and intimate
collaboration with her partner Jean-Lou Majerus.
“In art, Su-Mei Tse searches for and achieves complete harmony,” says Pieranna Cavalchini, Curator of
Contemporary Art at the Gardner Museum and curator of the exhibition. “It is a painstaking and relentless process of
discovery and balance and an incredible privilege as a curator to follow and learn to understand it.”
In Floating Memories, Tse presents a new installation merging sound, sculpture, and a video projection as it reflects
distant memory, absence, and longing. The artist has embedded a gold monochrome rug in an empty wooden frame,
carved with the partially worn and faded pattern of the 17th century Italian silk damask that originally covered the
walls in the Dutch Room. Tse has paired this with a personal flashback from her childhood, the image of an endlessly
revolving vinyl record, floating like a distant shimmering mirage. Rug, frame, and image are suspended in poetic
limbo by the incessantly scratching turntable sound of a revolving LP.
“Su-Mei Tse’s installation resonates within the Gardner collection particularly in the Dutch Room, where time has
come to a complete standstill, while a sense of absence, distant memory, and longing fades in and out of every empty
frame,” says Cavalchini. On the exhibition title, she adds: “Floating Memories are distant memories, that suddenly
bubble up to the surface of consciousness, only to recede again. But they are never quite forgotten.”
“Since Su-Mei’s [2007] residency at the Gardner, I have been following her work,” says Anne Hawley, the Norma
Jean Calderwood Director of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, “and have delighted in the unique forms she
creates to express her ideas. Su-Mei’s artistry is always filled with invention.”
Su-Mei Tse has exhibited in New York at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center and the Peter Blum Gallery; London at
the Albion Gallery; Roskilde, Denmark at the Museet for Samtidskunst; Chicago at The Renaissance Society;
Stockholm at the Moderna Museet; Seattle at the Seattle Art Museum; Athens at the Alpha Delta Gallery;
Antwerp at the Tim Van Laere Gallery; Taiwan at MOCA Taipei; Amsterdam at the Foundation De Appel;
Jerusalem at the Israel Museum; Paris at the Centre Culturel Suisse; and San Francisco at the Wattis Institute for
Contemporary Arts. A major exhibition of her work was recently presented at Casino Luxembourg Forum d'Art
Contemporain. This past spring, Tse presented the first major survey of her work in Asia at Art Tower Mito, Japan.
In addition to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Tse has been an artist-in-residence at the International
Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP), New York; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),
Cambridge; and Acadia Summer Art Program, Bar Harbor, Maine.
Tse was recently awarded the prestigious Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco Prize for Contemporary Art (May
2009). Other honors and awards include the SR-Medienkunstpreis given by the Saarlandischer Rudfunk as well as
the Prix d’art Robert Schumann. In 2005, Tse became the first recipient of the Edward Steichen Award, earning a
grant for a six-month artist’s residency in New York City. Her work has been reviewed in national and international
publications including The New York Times, Washington Post, ARTforum, Art in America, Chicago Tribune, Los
Angeles Times, The Independent, Art Press (France), iD-Magazine (U.K.), Art it (Japan), and more. Tse was born in
Luxembourg in 1973. She currently lives and works in Luxemburg and Berlin.
CONTEMPORARY ART AT THE GARDNER • The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is a vibrant, dynamic center for
the contemporary arts. The Artists-in-Residence program is unique among museum residency programs with an
emphasis on the museum’s collection and legacy as an inspiration for new artistic thinking. The program was created
in 1992 by director Anne Hawley to revitalize creative thinking and artistic creation. Directed by Curator of
Contemporary Art Pieranna Cavalchini, the Artists-in-Residence program supports visiting artists’ needs for
contemplation and inspiration. Visiting artists represent a range of disciplines and include painters, photographers,
sculptors, composers, installation and performance artists, storytellers, and writers who are invited to live at and
explore the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The program has welcomed nearly 70 artists since its inception.
The Artists-in-Residence program is made possible, in part, by The Andy Warhol Foundation
for the Visual Arts, the Nimoy Foundation, and generous individuals. The Gardner receives
operating support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Media sponsor for the exhibition is
The Phoenix Media Communications Group. Both quotes above are about the artist.
ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM • 280 The Fenway Boston MA 02115 • Tue.-Sun., 11 am-5 pm • Admission: Adults $12;
Seniors $10; Students $5; Free for members, children under 18, all named “Isabella,” and anyone on his or her birthday • “After Hours” admission:
Adults $12; Seniors $10; Students $5; Free for members • $2 off admission with a same-day Museum of Fine Arts, Boston • Info Line: 617.566.1401 •
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Box Office: 617 278 5156 • gardnermuseum.org • Modeled after a 15 -century Venetian palazzo and surrounding a courtyard
garden, the Gardner houses one of the most remarkable art collections in the world, featuring works by Rembrandt,
Michelangelo, Raphael, Degas, and Sargent, in addition to special exhibitions, concerts, and evening programs.
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MEDIA CONTACT • Katherine Armstrong Public Relations Director 617.278.5107 work 617.956.2565 cell [email protected]
EDITORS’ NOTES • Please join artist Su-Mei Tse and Gardner Museum curator Pieranna Cavalchini and director Anne Hawley for an exclusive unveiling
of the artist’s new work at an exclusive PRESS PREVIEW EVENT, WEDNESDAY, JULY 15TH, 9AM. The event will include exclusive early access to
the artist and exhibition and a breakfast reception. Free parking available for the media at the Museum of Fine Arts garage. Please RSVP to
[email protected] or 617-278-5107. • A copy of this PRESS RELEASE—in addition to a full PRESS KIT including an artist bio, accompanying
programming, links to past projects—is available in the museum’s online press area at gardnermuseum.org/information/press.asp. • EXHIBITION
IMAGES will be available to the media in the coming week; press photographers are welcome.