Su-Mei Tse: Floating Memories
July 16 – October 18, 2009

The perception of space is a function of what we see as well as what we hear. Tailored to the Gardner’s special exhibition room, Floating Memories merges sound, image and object into a single poetic form, encouraging viewers to reflect in the space on the passing of time, distant memory, absence and longing.

As a classically trained cellist the Luxembourg artist Su-Mei Tse is in her element when creating a visual dialogue with sound. In this exhibition the artist embeds a gold monochrome rug in an empty wooden frame, carved with the partially worn and faded pattern of the Italian silk damask that covers the walls in the Dutch Room (second floor) and pairs it with a personal flashback, an image from her childhood, of an endlessly revolving vinyl record, floating like a distant shimmering mirage. Rug, frame and image are suspended in a poetic limbo by the incessantly scratching turntable sound of a revolving LP.

An art installation such as this 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.

Su-Mei Tse (b. 1973) lives and works in Luxembourg and Berlin. In the spring of 2007 she participated in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Artist-in-Residence program, which for the past 17 years has encouraged artists to further their artistic practice by exploring and responding to the Museum’s collection and environment.

Su-Mei Tse realized Floating Memories in collaboration with Jean-Lou Majerus.

Related Programming

Artist Talk
Saturday, July 18 @ 1:30pm
Join Su-Mei Tse and Curator of Contemporary Art Pieranna Cavalchini for a discussion about the exhibition and Tse’s work. FREE with museum admission.

Artist Conversation
Thursday, September 24 @ 6:30pm
Join us for a conversation and book preview with Su-Mei Tse; Pieranna Cavalchini, Curator of Contemporary Art; and Enrico Lunghi, Director of the MUDAM Museum, Luxembourg, to learn about the making of Notes, an artist book in conjunction with the exhibition Su-Mei Tse: Floating Memories, due out later this fall.

Gallery Talks, Gardner After Hours
Third Thursdays, July – October @ 7pm
Join us for Gardner After Hours – third Thursdays from 5:30 to 9:30pm – and, from July through October, for 7pm gallery talks in the Special Exhibition Gallery. Guest speakers will include Lee Mingwei (July 16) and Cliff Evans (August 20). Gallery talks are FREE with After Hours admission.

Summer Night, Gardner After Hours
Thursday, August 20 @ 5:30-9:30pm
Celebrate summer and Su-Mei Tse: Floating Memories tonight with music, sketching, and gallery talks on the exhibition – plus a special concert by Belgian songwriter and performer, Niko Hafkenscheid, FREE with museum admission.

The Artist-in-Residence Program is made possible, in part, by the Nimoy Foundation, the Thomas A. Pappas Charitable Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and generous individuals. The Gardner Museum receives operating support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Media sponsor for Floating Memories: Boston Phoenix.