thao nguyen phan interweaves vietnamese folklore and ecological points in tate st ives exhibition
thao nguyen phan’s poetic works fill tate st ives
on view until may 2, 2022, tate st ives presents thao nguyen phan’s most extensive UK exhibition to date. phan is an internationally acclaimed artist, best known for her poetic, multi-layered works which explore the historical and ecological issues of her homeland vietnam, while also touching on broader ideas such as tradition, ideology, ritual, and environmental change. this exhibition showcases a selection of phan’s videos, paintings, and sculptures from the past five years, alongside some new pieces unveiled for the first time. this includes ‘first rain, brise soleil’ (2021–ongoing), a major new multi-channel film commission, and an accompanying series of paintings.
artist thao nguyen phan
image by benjakon
the ‘beauty of suffering’ of the mekong river
thao nguyen phan’s oeuvre interweaves mythology and folklore with pressing issues around industrialization, food security, and the environment. some of the recurring themes in her work are the extensive destruction and consumption of the earth’s resources, as well as the threats that they pose. the artist’s recent projects focus on ‘the beauty of suffering’ of the mekong river, running through tibet, china, myanmar, thailand, laos and cambodia and eventually meeting the sea on the coast of vietnam. in her latest moving image work ‘first rain, brise soleil’ featured in the exhibition at the tate st ives, phan continues the exploration of the mekong, proposing a new way of being that draws on indigenous knowledge and respect for the ecosystem.
the display also includes ‘becoming alluvium’, a 2019 video that narrates a story about ‘destruction, reincarnation, and renewal of not only the mekong, but of the necessity for human life to live in respect and awareness of the tangible and intangible world’ as the museum shares in its official press release. composed of video, animation, and found imagery, the film investigates the environmental and social changes provoked by the expansion of overfarming, overfishing, dam construction, and the looted heritage as an aftermath of colonialism. the video is accompanied by ‘perpetual brightness’ (2019–ongoing), a multi-part screen made using traditional vietnamese silk and lacquer painting techniques. created in collaboration with artist truong cong tung, the paintings vividly narrate imaginary stories of the mekong, as well as its human and non-human inhabitants.
portrait of august from dream of march and august, 2020.
image by truong minh tuan, courtesy of the artist
reflecting on colonialism through vietnamese folk tales
another featured work is ‘mute grain’ (2019), a three-channel film interpretation of the 1945–46 vietnamese famine, which is believed to have resulted in the loss of 2,000,000 lives. the film tells the story of a young woman named tám (august), who becomes a hungry ghost and is, therefore, unable to move forward to her next life, and her brother ba (march), who is worriedly looking for his sister. march and august represent the poorest months of the lunar calendar, when farmers used to borrow money and work side jobs in order to sustain themselves. ‘mute grain’ intertwines oral histories with elements of vietnamese folk tales and the literature of yasunari kawabata, reflecting on issues of colonialism, agriculture, and food security. meanwhile, the exhibition also presents ‘dream of march and august’ (2018–ongoing), phan’s series of suspended watercolor on silk paintings, which expand the tale of the two siblings.
tate st ives’s exhibition space is transformed by an installation of hanging jute stalks that divides the film and static works and through which visitors can move. for phan, this organic, interactive installation, titled ‘no jute cloth for the bones’ (2019/2021–22), acts as a kind of ‘lullaby’ dedicated to lives lost through the tragedies of war and famine.
march on a honda dream from dream of march and august, 2020.
image by truong minh tuan, courtesy of the artist
voyages de rhodes (installation view), 2014-2017. exhibition view of monsoon melody. WIELS, brussels, 2020.
image by philippe de gobbert
mute grain (video still), 2019.
courtesy of the artist, commissioned by sharjah art foundation
first rain, brise soleil (video still) 2021 – ongoing
courtesy of the artist and galerie zink, waldkirchen. made with the support of the han nefkens art foundation and tate st ives
