Fiona Tan: Nellie

Overview

Putting yourself in someone else's shoes is what empathy is all about. Wondering how a stranger's life plays out is one of the most common ways to kick your imagination into gear. Combine the two with artist Fiona Tan and an exploration of the concept of representation — both how we choose to portray ourselves to the world, and the way that we perceive others — and you have the video work Nellie.

Exhibiting at the Institute of Modern Art from April 1 to 29, Nellie focuses on Cornelia van Rijn, a real-life figure largely overlooked by history. She was the daughter of seventeenth century painter Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, and moved to Batavia — which is now Jakarta — when she was 15. The rest of her tale, well, through a combination of film and photography, as well as research and storytelling, that's where Tan's piece comes in.