Curated by CCST candidate Kim Nguyen\, an exhibition featuring the work of Christian Nguyen\, Nhan Duc Nguyen\, Pipo Nguyen-duy\, and Khanh Vo\, four contempor ary artists who address themes of family\, loss\, and the intricacies of me mory.
Everything Is Not Lost features the work of Christian Nguyen\, Nhan Duc Nguyen\, Pipo Nguyen-duy\, and Khanh Vo\, four contempora ry artists who address themes of family\, loss\, and the intricacies of mem ory. These artists interpret the thirty-year influence of the Vietnam War through autobiographical experiences\, narratives\, and postmemories. Work ing in a variety of mediums\, these four artists confront the socio-politic al and emotional complexities of warfare and the events that consequently d efine who they are today.
These artists unravel generational memories in an attempt to form an understanding of their own disrupted sense of his torical continuity. By compiling fragments of public\, collective\, and pe rsonal memory\, the artists formulate a new narrative unique to the Vietnam ese diasporic condition.
Christian Nguyen is a New York-based artist whose work examines how images\, upon entering public consciousness\, are c onnected to a specific time and can expire. In his series of drawings\, Ng uyen uses iconic images of the Vietnam War that are engrained in public mem ory but evacuates them of human presence.
Nhan Duc Nguyen compiles in terviews with Vietnamese restaurateurs and restaurant employees in Vancouve r\, discussing topics that range from favourite foods and their careers in the food and service industry to their experiences as boat people. Nguyen’ s work composes the story of the Vietnamese in Vancouver through the rise o f its cuisine. A portion of his installation will be exhibited off-site at the Le Do Vietnamese Restaurant.
Pipo Nguyen-duy’s photographic work analyzes cultural displacement within the contexts of immigration and emigr ation. He investigates the liminal space that exists between Vietnam and t he United States. Nguyen-duy’s current work draws inspiration from traditi onal landscape painting and his memories of childhood in Vietnam during the war. He currently resides in Ashland\, Oregon.
Khanh Vo’s installati on is an exploration of sociological time that references both the past and future of Vietnamese refugees in America. In his work\, the New York-base d Vo considers the idea of the “refugee space”\, a concept he created to co nsider the displacement experienced by the Vietnamese in America.
Everything Is Not Lost looks into the profound relationship the artis ts have to a Vietnam they may have little or no recollection of. While an apparent cultural connection fuels the artists to directly engage with reme mbrances of the War\, their work argues that the memory of Vietnam belongs to us all in varying ways\, regardless of personal associations.
Phot
o: Pipo Nguyen-duy
Ha Long Bay\, 2001
lightjet print fro
m the series Two Million Steps
This exhibition is curated by
We gratef ully acknowledge the support of the Alvin Balkind Fund for Student Curatori al Initiatives\, the Department of Art History\, Visual Art\, and Theory\, and the Faculty of Arts at The University of British Columbia.
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