The Syntactical Impossibility of Approaching with a Pure Heart
Project Description
The Syntactical Impossibility of Approaching with a Pure Heart, alongside Ghost in the Machine, is a commissioned work by Erika Tan and forms part of the artist’s contribution to A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling. This international exchange residency and touring exhibition programme brought together artists from Japan and the United Kingdom through reciprocal residencies in both countries. First presented at the Northern Gallery of Contemporary Art, the exhibition featured commissioned film, video and photographic installations developed during the parallel residencies in summer 2008.
The exhibition formed part of the British Council’s UK-Japan 2008 and Japan-UK 150 programmes, marking cultural and historical links between the two countries. Following its initial presentation in the UK, the exhibition subsequently toured to BankART 1929, NYK, Yokohama in 2009.
Taking its title from the travel writings of Ibn Battuta (1304–c. 1368/69), the Moroccan Muslim traveller, scholar and writer, A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling the exhibition considers travel as a means of observing, recording, interpreting and questioning unfamiliar cultures. Ibn Battuta’s Rihla, or Travels, describes his journeys across North Africa, the Middle East, Asia and beyond, providing an extraordinary account of the peoples, customs, places and societies he encountered. His writing also raises enduring questions about the position of the traveller: what it means to observe another culture, how unfamiliar places are translated into language and narrative, and how the act of describing others is inevitably shaped by the traveller’s own cultural and historical perspective.
This question of representation extends beyond Ibn Battuta to a longer history of writers, travellers and artists who have sought to describe cultures other than their own. Such accounts can offer valuable records of encounter and exchange, while also revealing the assumptions, expectations and interpretive frameworks brought by the observer. The project situates itself within this complex tradition, asking how cultures are constructed through the accounts of outsiders and how those representations, in turn, influence subsequent encounters. In this context, the writings of Yosano Akiko and Natsume Sōseki provide important Japanese perspectives on encounters with other cultures and the experience of looking beyond one’s own cultural context. Their different approaches to travel, observation and cultural identity further complicate the relationship between the traveller, the place encountered and the act of representation.
Tan work collectively titled Made in Japan combines documentary observation with speculation, using historical references, symbolic imagery and personal experience to examine how knowledge is shaped through movement between places. Her work is attentive not only to what is seen, but also to the histories of representation that precede the traveller and condition what can be recognised, understood or imagined.
Tan’s newly commissioned work, Made in Japan, explores the expectations and assumptions that travellers bring to Japan, questioning the iconic images through which the country is understood. Drawing on her background in anthropology, Tan considers what can be absorbed from another culture, what can be translated into personal experience and what remains fundamentally unfamiliar.
Central to the project is The Syntactical Impossibility of Approaching with a Pure Heart, a complex multi-part installation centred on Mount Fuji. One of Japan’s most recognisable cultural images, Fuji has been repeatedly represented in painting, photography and popular culture. Tan assembles an inventory of these different views and received impressions, asking whether it is possible to encounter a place without the accumulated perceptions of those who have come before.
The work combines 13 video pieces with hundreds of donated drawings, composite images of Mount Fuji, digital prints, animations, sculptural objects, viewing mechanisms and LED signage. Bringing together found material, live footage and newly produced imagery, the installation offers an evocative portrait of Japan’s most iconic mountain while reflecting on the difficulties and uncertainties of representation. The repeated outlines of Fuji in visitors’ drawings are set against live footage in which the mountain is obscured by fog, highlighting the distance between expectation, representation and experience.
Another body of works within Made in Japan is titled Ghost in the Machine. These works extend Tan’s investigation of representation, cultural memory and the ways in which images and objects acquire meaning as they move between different contexts. Together with The Syntactical Impossibility of Approaching with a Pure Heart, Ghost in the Machine forms part of the project’s wider exploration of how Japan is imagined, represented and encountered through travel and cultural exchange.
Bio
Erika Tan (b. 1967, Singapore) is a London-based Singaporean artist and curator whose research-led practice spans film, video, photography, installation, archival research and participatory projects. Her work explores cultural memory, migration, representation and the movement of people, objects and ideas across borders. Emerging from her interest in anthropology and the moving image, Tan’s practice often responds to specific cultural, geographical and historical contexts.
Recent projects include Ancestral (r)Evocations, presented at Tate Modern in 2025, and Threads of Kinship at KADIST, Paris (2025–26). In 2026, Tan’s work was presented in Threads of Kinship at He Art Museum, Foshan, and in Afterlives: The Weaver, A Chorus, An Archipelago. Her work has also been exhibited at the Venice Biennale, Tate, National Gallery Singapore, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, ZKM and the Singapore Biennale.
Project details
Year: 2008/9
Artists: Erika Tan
Exhibition: A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling
Collective heading: Made in Japan
Works: The Syntactical Impossibility of Approaching with a Pure Heart; Ghost in the Machine
Curated and produced by: Keith Whittle and Alistair Robinson
First venue: Northern Gallery of Contemporary Art
Subsequent venue: BankART 1929, NYK, Yokohama
Partners: BankART 1929; P3 Art and Environment; The Graduate School of Film and New Media, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music
Format: Film, video, photography and installation
Support: Arts Council North East, The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation; The Japan Foundation; The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation