Letters From Dr. Bamberger
2001-2012
Annual post-physical letters
9 in total
Variable installation


Letters From Dr. Bamberger consists of nine letters received from the artist’s former general physician, following annual physical check-ups. The letters could be regarded as a series of commissioned portraits made from language that dryly depicts the state of a body, and that also conveys what is an unusual, privileged occurrence within the dysfunctional and costly American healthcare system. The piece began when Lisa Tan lived in Los Angeles. It continued to be produced after she moved to New York in 2005. It’s when she gained resident status in Sweden where healthcare is socialized that the visits ended. Letters From Dr. Bamberger can be installed as a group or as individual letters dispersed throughout a space or series of spaces.


Photo credit:
Jean-Baptiste Beranger


Exhibition History

84 Steps, Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam, 2022-21

My Pictures of You, Galleri Riis, Oslo, 2019

A nonspatial continuum..., Schleicher/Lange, Berlin, 2013

Le Prince des Rayons, Galerie VidalCuglietta, Brussels, 2012

Exhibition for a Transition Function, Hilary Crisp, London, 2011

Two Birds, Eighty Mountains, and a Portrait of the Artist, Arthouse, Austin, 2011

Based on a True Story, Artists Space, New York, 2005


Reviews

O’Neill-Butler, Lauren. “Review: Lisa Tan, Arthouse at the Jones Center." Artforum. April, 2011, p. 222. Print.
link / pdf

Rattemeyer, Christian. “First Take.” Artforum. Jan 2006, p. 184-186. Print.
link / pdf