Tuan Andrew Nguyen: The Limits of Narrative

In Conversation with Vivian Chui

Having co-founded the artist collective The Propeller Group and the non-profit art space Sàn Art, the 44-year-old has dedicated his practice to uncovering the deep interconnections between the colonisers and the colonised; the local and the universal; mankind and its surrounding world. Following on the heels of a successful world premiere of his film The Specter of Ancestors Becoming (2019) at Sharjah Biennial 14 (Leaving the Echo Chamber, 7 March–10 June 2019) and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art last year, as part of the group exhibition SOFT POWER (26 October 2019–17 February 2020), Nguyen returns to New York with his first solo exhibition at James Cohan, titled A Lotus in a Sea of Fire (28 February–3 May 2020), now viewable online.

Tuan Andrew Nguyen, The Specter of Ancestors Becoming (2019). Four-channel video installation: colour, 7.1 surround sound; inkjet on canvas, oil on canvas, graphite on paper, C-prints, sand. 28 min; dimensions variable. Exhibition view: Leaving the Echo Chamber, Sharjah Biennial 14, Sharjah (7 March–10 June 2019). Commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation. Produced by Sharjah Art Foundation with additional production support from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Courtesy the artist and James Cohan, New York. Photo: Ann Binlot.

Though also featuring sculptures carved by Filipino artisans enlisted by the artist, the exhibition centres on The Boat People (2020), a roughly 20-minute video set in Bataan—a verdant province that lies across the Manila Bay from the Philippines' capital city, which became the site of untold violence during World War II and later, between 1980 and 1990, a place of refuge for thousands who fled Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos... READ MORE

Image: Tuan Andrew Nguyen, The Specter of Ancestors Becoming (2019). Four-channel video installation: colour, 7.1 surround sound; inkjet on canvas, oil on canvas, graphite on paper, C-prints, sand. 28 min; dimensions variable. Exhibition view: Leaving the Echo Chamber, Sharjah Biennial 14, Sharjah (7 March–10 June 2019). Commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation. Produced by Sharjah Art Foundation with additional production support from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Courtesy the artist and James Cohan, New York. Photo: Ann Binlot.