Huyen Tran

Harmony, 2025
Cardboard, bungee cord, video
Approx. 32 x 16 x 17 in.
7 minute 20 second loop
Courtesy of the artist

Harmony explores the theme of conformity in Vietnamese education. While I see the plastic stool as an object of endearment, as seen on the streets of Vietnam, they are also a visualization of conformity. During school, in preparation for the weekly flag salute ceremonies, students line up the plastic stools in evenly straight rows and lines. I began viewing the stools as the representation of the students who would gather in the school yard that day, to sit on the stools and listen quietly, without questioning. This routine inspired the performance video embedded in this work. Additionally, I flattened the stools using cardboard cutouts to conform to my idea, similarly to how I had experienced parts of my identity being flattened growing up. As a flat object, the stool is neutral, simple, and comfortable. Flatness lacks complexity and is predictable, so it is comprehensible. It has a lot more room for my ideas to be projected onto; being flat is inviting for change, control, and manipulation. In a way, I flattened my stools to make them conform to my idea, the same way I had seen parts of my identity being flattened growing up. 

Harmony is a mixed-media work that encapsulates Huyen Tran’s practice of pushing the boundaries between life and art while operating within systems of capitalism. The objects such as cardboard, bungee cords, the ubiquitous red plastic stool, are a compilation of mass-produced goods that display mundane objects as art. Tran asks us to reappraise the boundaries of both the monetary and cultural value of objects to challenge consumerism and the ability to have accessibility to consume goods immediately and in abundance. Drawing from her upbringing in Vietnam and her life now in New York City, Huyen Tran’s Harmony touches upon the strict, militant, and factory-like movement of life to challenge notions of productivity and labor to instead, opt for a reflection on the potentiality of livelihood.  

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Artist Interview

Can you tell us about your artistic practice and the major influences that have affected your work? 

My studio practice aims to blur the boundaries between life and art, mostly through the use of readymade or everyday materials. Through my works, I seek to contemplate my life experience, to interrogate the capitalistic systems that inform our worth, to define (and sometimes fail to define) my artistic responsibilities for reflecting a culture, to further analyze the connection between art-making and how I process my personal life, and to continue asking why I see a resemblance in life and art. 

Can you describe your creative process through the use of materials?

I make sculptures and build installations by using multiples of the same object, either in their original forms or by fabricating them. I often start with a concept or an object that I have been fascinated with or thinking about for a while. I don’t have a fixed medium, which gives me a lot of freedom to explore my materials, but also challenges me to acquire new modes of working for each project. 

My materials often exist in large quantities. I am drawn to the visual of multiples because they immediately exaggerate the scale and power of an object. It also evokes a sense of comfort, order, and control. My early memory of such scale and power was watching marching bands performing at a parade on the state-run national broadcaster of Vietnam. Since my works often explore the theme of conformity and capitalism, mass-produced items or multiples become an important element of my materials. 

What does the 50 year anniversary of the establishment of the Vietnamese American community (and in general varying diasporic Vietnamese communities) mean to you? What does it look like? 

I have learned a lot about the experiences of the Vietnamese American diaspora since I moved to the US (almost 10 years ago), which was eye-opening. As of 2025, more than 50% of the Vietnamese population in Vietnam age under 50 years old, so growing up in Vietnam, my knowledge of the war was very far removed. The history I learned at school in Vietnam was so different from how the US told it and even more so from the stories of the Vietnamese who fled the country. The 50th anniversary of the establishment of the diasporic Vietnamese communities reminds me of the layers of complexities, tensions, and contradictions that will continue to take years for us to process. 

What are you hoping for viewers to take away from the exhibition and your work?

I am hoping that, through the exhibition, the viewers can recognize the diversity of works made by Vietnamese artists. And that there is so much more to Vietnamese art beyond the war. 

How do you feel about the notion of cultural memory and creating/re-telling forms of personal history through your work? 

The notion of cultural memory and re-telling forms of personal history could serve as an important part of exploring one’s lived experience. It can be a form of processing one’s personal truth, questioning, reflecting, and exploring new narratives. We all carry with us our own history that helps shape who we are. Personally, my goal as an artist is to embrace my experience but not let it consume me. Through my works, I want to lean into the many questions of uncertainty that inspire problem-solving, reflection, and change.