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Fiona Tan
born 1966
Saint Sebastian
2001
Video installation

Purchased from Frith Street Gallery, London (General Funds) 2005
T12020

Saint Sebastian depicts the female participants in the Toshiya ceremony, an annual rite of passage in which young Japanese archers compete. The work is presented as an installation with one projection shown on each side of a hanging screen. One film shows details of the archers’ colourful kimonos and headwear, while the other focuses on the moments when each woman releases her arrow from her bow. Saint Sebastian explores the role of traditional ritual in contemporary life as seen through the gaze of a cultural outsider. The dialogue between East and West is heightened by the work’s title which is rooted in the Western Christian tradition.

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Click on images for more about each highlight

• Francis Picabia
  1879–1953
  Otaïti
  1930
• Michelangelo Pistoletto
  born 1933
  Venus of the Rags
  1967, 1974
• Louise Bourgeois
  born 1911
  Mamelles
  1991, 2001
• Lawrence Weiner
  born 1942
  Spheres of Influence
  1990
• Rodney Graham
  born 1949
  How I Became a Ramblin’ Man
  1999
• Fiona Tan
  born 1966
  Saint Sebastian
  2001
• Carlos Garaicoa
  born 1967
  Letter to the Censors
  2003
  Carta a los censores
• Olafur Eliasson
  born 1967
  Your Double-Lighthouse Projection
  2002
• Francis Alÿs
  born 1959
  Guards
  2004