Tài liệu F.O.B.II: Art Speaks pptx

YOUTH CULTURE AND IDENTITY POLITICS: Demon Slayer Family Give Love, Get Loved This work navigates attention to the dualistic dialogue steaming between diferent generations of Vietname

F.O.B.II: Art Speaks

[Nghệ Thuật Lên Tiếng]

January 9-15, 2009

F.O.B II: Foyer of VAALA Center

RECONSTRUCTING MEMORY

ROOM

RECONSTRUCTING MEMORY:

Nguyen Viet Hung

Freedom 2: 7 days through the sea

RECONSTRUCTING MEMORY:

Nguyen Viet Hung

Freedom 2: 7 days through the sea

I crossed the sea to arrive at the Philippines in 1981, and immigrated to the U.S in 1982 The seven-nights journey was on a small fishing boat, taking many risks with the storms The ocean could either bury me or carry me to the promised land, and it ended up giving us mercy after the challenges.

The seven-nights journey across the sea is so short in comparison to the amount of time I’ve spent in my second homeland, from 1982 to 2008 In this time, I have completed a new

project about that journey then.

Describing that journey on the ocean from Vietnam to the Phillippines, 7 boats are 7 days on the water, face-to-face with danger on the endless ocean; life-death, hope-despair…

Freedom is not a given.

I do not create these types of paintings often, but I’m not sure why I’ve returned to my

memories, feeling like I have to paint, so that the worries about life’s uncertainties can

settle…

I choose this work to participate in the exhibition Art Speaks as a way to speak about the

origins of the Vietnamese diaspora of Little Saigon Although the Vietnamese immigrants have arrived here by different journeys, we all have freedom in common.

But freedom is not a destination nor is it tangible It is an ongoing journey Freedom needs to

be maintained and protected And the best method: freedom of an individual cannot infringe

on other individuals’ freedom.

Freedom is a way of choosing Freedom is so rare, do not abuse it and do not lose it.

RECONSTRUCTING MEMORY:

Ann Phong, Mending

My art reflects the feelings and thoughts of people who have experienced hardships in their lives Many have suffered through difficult living conditions while being uprooted from their homeland, only to settle down in a new territory which resembles nothing about their culture but promises freedom Even more have felt disconnected with the younger generations who have seemed to lose their heritage years after We Vietnamese in particular develop complex and restrained emotions To survive in these desperate situations, we reinforce ourselves with optimistic

RECONSTRUCTING MEMORY:

Ann Phong, An Advice

me I painted Seed of Life non-stop for about 3 hours The painting was quickly

finished as to mark my own emotions At the same period of time, I also

produced another work called Nostalgia (which includes 3 paintings put together

and are oil on canvas, measuring 48”x90”)

Seed of Life was exhibited in my solo art show at City Hall in Boston, MA, in

1993 as a sharing of pain and loss of my people and community The biggest tragedy of my people has been the waste of human life What I would like to

say about Seed of Life is that preserving life is the most important and

necessary act The work of protecting the life of your country is an essential duty; as a result, every person must become immensely valued Being able to live is a right that I believe needs to be sustained and passed down through the generations.

RECONSTRUCTING MEMORY:

Dao Hai Trieu

Nautical Dreams and The Waves

RECONSTRUCTING MEMORY:

Dao Hai Trieu

Nautical Dreams and The Waves

I often reminisce of the sea—the place of my rebirth—whose temperamental waves shift without warning

between the peaceful serenity of a calm day and the unforgiving rage of the violent storm; its volatile mood marked by the gloom of the gray morning suddenly made vibrant red, only deepen into purple sullenness

It is an incomprehensible vastness, a world

immeasurable I offer the sea, my temperamental

savior, the most fragrant flower—a gesture of thanks for all the freedoms it has nourished on this endless journey

RECONSTRUCTING MEMORY:

Binh Danh, Pulau Bidong Series

RECONSTRUCTING MEMORY:

Binh Danh

Pulau Bidong Series

Over the summer of 2002, my mother and I visited a little abandoned island off the coast of Malaysia called Pulau Bidong, the site of a Vietnamese refugee camp where we had lived We explored the island by taking photographs and gathering ephemeral documents

scattered throughout the deserted buildings These photographs resulting from our visit allowed us to

remember the past and focus on the present

RECONSTRUCTING MEMORY:

Long Nguyen

Tales of Yellow Skin #18 and #28

Photo by Lan Duong

RECONSTRUCTING MEMORY:

Le T Que-Huong

To Cali with Love I and II

I live and celebrate life now in California But so often, my heart and soul still tremble when I receive a familiar “AIR MAIL” envelope with marks and handwriting so distinctively from Viet Nam, the faraway land that holds so much

memory for me; the land that still nurtures many seeds for

my art My paintings are like “maps” to reveal and convey the emotional connection of my past…and present

YOUTH CULTURE AND IDENTITY POLITICS ROOM

YOUTH CULTURE AND IDENTITY POLITICS: Demon

Slayer Family

Give Love, Get Loved

This work navigates attention to the dualistic dialogue steaming between diferent generations

of Vietnamese living

in America today The distinct intertwined cultural and social aspects merge with traditional views and nationalistic identities of program.

Photos by Jenni Trang Le

YOUTH CULTURE AND IDENTITY POLITICS: Demon

YOUTH CULTURE AND IDENTITY POLITICS: Dan Duy

Nguyen, Cosmic Emnesty

The first in a series dedicated to the humanistic experience within an infinite universe This piece exemplifies specifically the feminine energies of our reality, focused and manifested as a human female The title "Cosmic Emnesty" can be broken down and further examined

to reiterate the message of the piece "Cosmic" alludes to the cosmos, both micro and macro realities as we know it The "Em" in

"Emnesty" specifically relates to the Vietnamese system of masculine / feminine identification, a cultural product of tradition The artist has created a slang term for "your majesty,” shortened and combined with "Em" to emerge as "Emnesty.” The image and title highlight a trinity that is connected by the whole; three points of the same triangle: Queen, Em, and Cosmic Human.

YOUTH CULTURE AND IDENTITY POLITICS: Mailan Thi Pham,

Magic Eye

•

Photos by Lan Duong

YOUTH CULTURE AND IDENTITY POLITICS: Alex

Chinh Nguyen

“I am a Vietnamese Artist,” “Bench Press

with Rice,” “Beard of Friendship”

YOUTH CULTURE AND IDENTITY POLITICS: Alex

Chinh Nguyen

“I am a Vietnamese Artist,” “Bench Press

with Rice,” “Beard of Friendship”

As a Vietnamese-American Artist, the idea of cultural dissonance and the effects it has on one's identity is essential to my work However, I am not confined to just my cultural disposition My interaction as a teenager with the subcultures of skateboarding, the independent music scene, and martial arts helped me form my identity Through

exposure to these cultures I learned that feelings of transgression and despair can be alleviated and expressed through different means, such as physical performance and

an audio-visual language I continuously seek to incorporatewhat I have learned from these subcultures and my

Vietnamese heritage into my art making process

YOUTH CULTURE AND IDENTITY POLITICS: Young

Leading Women (YLW)

Hopeful Hands

Photos by Kieu Linh Valverde

YOUTH CULTURE AND IDENTITY POLITICS: Young

Leading Women (YLW)

Hopeful Hands

Each artwork is a statement dedicated to the workers

of the nail salon industry The artists within this diverse

collaboration made personal connections to one

immigrant family's story of the trials and triumphs within

the nail salon industry These artworks advocate for

the health and safety of everyone and for the rights of

workers within the industry The Hopeful Hands

collaboration aims to provide awareness, education,

and support for a safe and healthy environment for

both nail salon workers and the community

BETWEEN VIET NAM AND THE DIASPORA: CONTEMPORARY ARTS AND THE VISUAL

these artists find that the “political” must be extended to those that include our

human community, not just the Vietnamese American community

GIỮA VIỆT NAM VÀ HẢI NGOẠI:

CHÍNH TRỊ ĐƯƠNG THỜI QUA THỊ GIÁC

Những nghệ sĩ thuộc phần này của cuộc triển lãm chú trọng đến chính trị đang diễn ra trong đời sống của chúng ta tại Việt Nam và cộng đồng hải ngoại Họ

tự hỏi về tình trạng chính trị nơi tất cả chúng ta đang sống – một trình trạng được đánh dấu bởi những vấn đề kỹ thuật, kỳ thị, chiến tranh, sinh hoạt dân chủ, và nhân quyền Đề cập về chính trị hậu 9/11 của thế giới, những nghệ sĩ

này nhận thấy “chính trị” phải được mở rộng để bao gồm cộng đồng nhân loại

của chúng ta, không chỉ cộng đồng Mỹ gốc Việt.

Binh Danh

the Orange Field

CONTEMPORARY ARTS AND THE VISUAL:

Long T Bui, 5th World Order

CONTEMPORARY ARTS AND THE VISUAL:

Long T Bui, 5th World Order

5 th World Order shows the competing layers of cultural

representation The "animation" of social life must wrestle with bigger superimposed media blocks reducing all things into neat topical categories of interest Superimposed onto those are political iconography symbols of the revolutionary soldier whose military legacy hangs over all of us in the

community and from which we cannot escape

CONTEMPORARY ARTS AND THE VISUAL: Nguyen

Huy Loc

Chuyen Cua Rung 3

Photo by Lan Duong

CONTEMPORARY ARTS AND THE VISUAL:

Nguyen Huy Loc

Chuyen Cua Rung 3

Những tác phẩm của tôi được vẽ với những ý tưởng muốn đánh thức tình nhân bản của con người trong cuộc sống đương đại Hãy nhìn, hãy quay lại, hãy nghĩ ngợi và hãy

lăng nghệ những gì quanh mình để thấy được một khoảng không gian nhỏ trong cuộc sống tấp nập của không gian đô thị

Với tôi, cảm hứng do xuất phát từ ý tưởng, nghệ thuật

không biến giới, không phân biệt máu da, tuổi tác ngôn

ngữ, và không gian Tất cả những gì cần bộc bạch, cần phô bày thì hãy để tiếng nói của nghệ thuật quyết định, để

nghệ thuật lên tiếng Bất nguồn từ ý tưởng đó, tôi đã thích thú và tham gia chương trình này

CONTEMPORARY ARTS AND THE VISUAL:

Vu Hoang Lan , Yours

Photos by Lan Duong

CONTEMPORARY ARTS AND THE VISUAL:

Vu Hoang Lan , Yours

The psyche of the Vietnamese in America, with a long and complicated history and the exciting journey to a new land, is way more abundant than it has been perceived and portrayed by the media It is the artist's responsibility to cultivate deeper into this rich resource to present to the public a more precise view of Vietnamese American as a whole, using the language of the arts

Tâm thức của người Việt trên đất Mỹ, với chiều dài của lịch sử dân tộc, và với cuộc hành trình trên miền đất mới, rõ ràng đa dạng và

phong phú hơn nhiều so với những gì được cảm nhận và phản ảnh trên truyền thông đại chúng Người nghệ sĩ có trách nhiệm phải đào sâu hơn nữa vào kho tàng nguyên liệu phong phú này để đưa đến cho công chúng cách nhìn chính xác hơn về người Mỹ gốc Việt, qua dạng thức những tác phẩm nghệ thuật

CONTEMPORARY ARTS AND THE VISUAL: Nguyen

Khai, 9-11 and Circuit

Photos by Jenni Trang Le

CONTEMPORARY ARTS AND THE VISUAL:

Nguyen Khai, 9-11 and Circuit

As a young artist, Nguyen Khai found that he yearned for more freedom than what he had painting on silk, which requires that the artist apply coat after coat

of paint in order to get a desired color “Sadly, the freedom to paint what they wanted was cut short with the fall of Sài Gòn in April 1975,” he said,

remembering that when the Communist government took over, it controlled what they could create

Desperately, Nguyên Khai tried to escape such a system And following four attempts, the couple, with young Tony and his older sister in tow, finally did

when they were plucked out of the South China Sea by the crew of a Red Cross ship from Germany Once in the U.S., the Nguyễns settled in Orange County, where Nguyên Khai continued to create oil paintings

Statement: To convey that everything can carry a spirit if it is “put together in

the right way A computer chip is very dry — it has no feeling — but when used

in a certain way, you get good out of it With high standards of life, sometime

we concentrate on that and forget spiritual life,” he said

CONTEMPORARY ARTS AND THE VISUAL:

Nhan Duc Nguyen

A Place I’ve Never Been

Photo by Lan Duong

Photo by Kieu Linh Valverde

CONTEMPORARY ARTS AND THE VISUAL:

Nhan Duc Nguyen

A Place I’ve Never Been

Postcards are often sent to friends and family members, often of places one visit, giving glimpses of the foreign and context to the familiar Familiar too is the ability to re-

imaging the proofs of one’s self and one’s world with a

software program and few clicks of the mouse Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? Wish you were here

Art speak in tongues Sometimes art expresses through me with paint and pixels, with tried-and-true formula and

experimentations, with forms and sometime with contents

I just go along for the ride

ART AND THE CAPTURE OF TIME

AND SPACE ROOM

ART AND THE CAPTURE OF TIME AND SPACE:

Vuong Van Thao

Hoa Thach Song Cot Dien Hoa Thach Song Nha

Photos by Kieu Linh Valverde

ART AND THE CAPTURE OF TIME AND SPACE:

Vuong Van Thao

Hoa Thach Song Cot Dien Hoa Thach Song Nha

I call these works “living fossils” despite the contradiction in these terms Fossils are dead, but I add the word “living” because by being fossilized, they remain in the present, among the living

Hanoi’s Old Quarter has thirty-six streets (Here I have displayed only one) Today, these streets are the remnants of the original market town which developed beside the emperor’s citadel Many of the original houses have been lost over time, torn down or renovated into something new But the old streets remain a part of

Vietnam’s cultural tradition I want to preserve the culture of the old streets by

preserving some of the few remaining houses in their unrenovated state

People mean different things by “heritage” and “preservation”; there are different opinions about how to respect the past while living in today and thinking ahead to tomorrow

ART AND THE CAPTURE OF TIME AND SPACE:

Sandrine Llouquet

“Baguettes,” “Dragon,” “Moi/Je”

ART AND THE CAPTURE OF TIME AND SPACE:

Sandrine Llouquet

“Baguettes,” “Dragon,” “Moi/Je”

Sandrine Llouquet creates unassuming drawings, site-specific installations, and Flash animations, which are simultaneously playful and evocative, hinting of

wonder and wounds Her practice embraces these contradictory impulses, culling images and references from mass media, her personal narrative, collective

memory, literature, and so on Her images are at once familiar and unsettling— disjunctured, surprising, decontextualized, the presentation of her drawings and animations within complete environments point at the complexities of memory

and representation, desire and lack, jouissance and despair

Referring to her body of work, Llouquet writes, “Each piece is a tentative

combination of the contradictory feelings which animate me, particularly violence and sweetness.” Violence and sweetness, ambivalence and liminality are at the heart of the artist’s practice Trauma and kitsch, play and pathos are not polar

binaries for Llouquet; they inform and transform each other.

adapted from essay by Viet Le