2023
Site-specific construction in wood and carpet
Based on Fig. 9 in Migraine (2012) by Oliver Sacks, first published in 1970 by the University of California Press, Berkley, and Los Angeles, California as Migraine: The Evolution of a Common Disorder.
The artist is prompted by the common assumption that a migraine is nothing more than a glorified headache. The American writer Joan Didion (1934– 2021) described how hers left her “insensible to the world” several days a month. British neurologist Oliver Sacks (1933–2015) made a diagram in 1970 to describe this neurological disorder. Tan has used this diagram for the installation Promise or Threat (2023) as the exhibition’s organising principle with walls built by standard wood studs that create a series of room – like spaces over both galleries.
Photo credit:
Jean-Baptiste Béranger