Sunsets
2012
HD video, sound
Variable installation
22 minutes 30 seconds


Sunsets is comprised of scenes filmed at either three o’clock in the morning during the summer solstice, or at three o’clock in the afternoon during the winter solstice, in Sweden. The video opens with the sound of a scratchy internet call between two people: the artist – who is largely undetectable, save for the sound of her keypad as she types – and a friend of hers who has agreed to translate an interview from 1977 with the Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector, found on YouTube. This recording, both halting and casual, forms the soundtrack. In the interview, we hear Lispector describe aspects of her working method and philosophize death’s role in her creative process. “If you couldn’t write anymore, would you die?”—asks the interviewer. The author’s response: “I think that when I write I am dead.” The forces of light and mood converse with the enigmatic Lispector as she chain smokes, seemingly fueling transformative states of becoming, and turning translation’s liminality into a material presence.


Photo credit:
Jean-Baptiste Beranger


Texts and interviews

Video credits
link / pdf

Lee, Mara. “The Shadow is Just as Tangible as the Origin.” Sunsets, Notes...,Waves. Archive Books, 2016.
link / pdf

O'Neill-Butler, Lauren. “Time is a Dictator.” Sunsets, Notes...,Waves. Archive Books, 2016.
link / pdf

Sadr Haghighian, Natascha. “Airport Hotel.” Sunsets, Notes...,Waves. Archive Books, 2016.
link / pdf

Tan, Lisa. “Document of its Own Method.” Sunsets, Notes...,Waves. Archive Books, 2016.
link / pdf

Tan, Lisa. For Every Word Has Its Own Shadow. Gothenburg: ArtMonitor, 2015. (PhD thesis)
link / pdf

Wildt, Franziska. "Interview: Lisa Tan." Artblog Cologne. May 3, 2016. 
link / pdf

Martin Grennberger. "Interview: Lisa Tan," Kunstkrittik, Feb 24, 2015.
link / pdf

O'Brien, Nicholas. "An interview with artist Lisa Tan." WAX magazine. Issue 7, Summer 2015.
link / pdf

Tan, Lisa. Text for exhibition at Galleri Riis. Stockholm, Jan 14 - Feb 21, 2015.
link / pdf

Ringborg, Theodor . “Sunsets.” commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara.
link / pdf


Exhibition History

When the Sun Goes Down, Galleri CC, Malmö, 2024

Cache and Four Films, Billytown, The Hague, 2023

Notes From Underground, Kunsthall Trondheim, Norway, 2017

Song of the Open Road, Contemporary Art Gallery CAG, Vancouver, 2017

Sugar and Speed, Museu de Arte Moderna Aloisio Magalhães, Recife, 2017

Sunsets, Notes From Underground, Waves, Galleri Riis, Oslo, 2016

Strange Oscillations and Vibrations of Sympathy, Art Galleries of Illinois State University, 2016

Wenden in den Geistes-, Sozial-  und Kulturwissenschaften – Analysen, Reflexionen und Konsequenzen, Universität zu Köln, Cologne, 2016 (screening)

For every word has its own shadow, Galleri Riis, Stockholm, 2015

Bloom Projects: Sunsets, Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 2014

Just what is it that makes today so familiar, so uneasy?, Lofoten International Art Festival (LIAF), Lofoten, 2013

Duets, Cristina Guerra Contemporary Art, Lisbon, 2013

Thinking and Speaking, Stockholm, 2013

Kino der Kunst, with Andreas Grimm Galerie, Munich, 2013 (screening)

Encore! film festival, Bonniers Konsthall at Bio Sture, Stockholm, 2013 (screening)

Screening Room: Brussels, Temporary Gallery, Cologne, 2012 (screening)

The Revolution Must be Made Little by Little, Galeria Raquel Arnaud, São Paulo, 2012

Shiver in the Shift, Parra & Romero, Madrid, 2012

Sunsets, Galerie VidalCuglietta, Brussels, 2012