Exhibition
in New York NY / United States
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- Tuan Andrew Nguyen: Blast, 2024, 155 mm artillery shells, brass from artillery shell, pounded brass from artillery shells, powder coat, concrete, 72 x 94 1/2 in, 183 x 240 cm, Rotating clearance of at least 63 in / 160 cm
James Cohan is pleased to present “Lullaby of Cannons for the Night”, an exhibition by Tuan Andrew Nguyen, his third solo exhibition with James Cohan. This exhibition marks the New York premiere of a recent two-channel video installation, “The Sounds of Cannons, Familiar Like Sad Refrains / Đại Bác Nghe Quen Như Câu Dạo Buồn”, 2021, alongside related kinetic sculptures made from bomb fragments. Collectively, the works on view in this exhibition explore how materials hold memory and the potential for transformation, reincarnation, and healing.
The bombing of several regions in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia during the Vietnam War (1955 to 1975) by the United States Armed Forces – what is considered the largest aerial bombardment in human history – left hundreds of thousands of unexploded ordnances hidden underground, that still pose a tremendous threat to local inhabitants today. In “The Sounds of Cannons”, Nguyen juxtaposes archival footage from the US army with recently recorded images of an unexploded ordnance (UXO) deactivation in the Vietnamese coastal province of Quảng Trị.
Taking its title from a line in the late sixties song “Đại Bác Ru Đêm” (Lullaby of Cannons for the Night) by Vietnamese songwriter and poet Trịnh Công Sơn, the film follows one of the unexploded ordnances and gives it a voice through an animistic transformation. From its drop, to its detonation in the rainforests of Vietnam, it offers closure to a menacing narrative that had been on hold for half a century. For Nguyen, this work is part of a regenerative process. It aims to contribute towards the healing of a land that was dispossessed by its contamination. Landmine and UXO pollution has especially affected rural populations, leaving a dramatic trail of fatalities and amputated limbs, and those populations must be liberated from the threat of death that lies beneath the surface.
Nguyen’s video and sculptural works explore the transformative possibilities of material animism and reincarnation. These concepts also evidence the resilience of communities working through trauma, offering a generative space to construct futures based on embodied notions of building and rebuilding.
Tuan Andrew Nguyen was born in 1976 in Ho Chi Minh City. In 1979, he and his family emigrated as refugees to the United States. Nguyen graduated from the Fine Arts program at the University of California, Irvine in 1999 and received his Masters of Fine Arts from The California Institute of the Arts in 2004. He currently lives and works between Ho Chi Minh City & Los Angeles.
Gallery hours Tue-Sat 10 am – 6 pm
Exhibition Duration 14 February 22 March 2025
Location:
James Cohan Gallery
291 Grand Street
10002 New York NY
United States
