Tuan Andrew Nguyen

Sixteen Days at Sea [Plaque of Gratitude To Mother Mary and Jesus Christ], 2017
Carved granite
19.75 x 13.75 x 1 in (50 x 35 x 2.5 cm)
Courtesy of the artist and Páramo Gallery

Work Description:

This work was completed as part of a series of works that emerged during Tuan Andrew Nguyen’s completion of the film, The Island, which was shown at the 2017 Whitney Biennial. 

The Island was based on and filmed in Pulau Bidong, a small island off the northeastern coast ofMalaysia. Bidong housed the largest and longest-operated Vietnamese refugee camp after the fall of Saigon from 1978 through 1991. Hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese who fled Vietnam were housed in Bidong. Now, Bidong houses relics, ruins, and memories of displacement of those who temporarily settled there for refuge. The lasting relics that remain show signs of visual decay and are in the process of being consumed by the jungle and sea. Sixteen Days at Sea [Plaque of Gratitude To Mother Mary and Jesus Christ] is a re-fabrication of a Vietnamese tombstone in Bidong. The original, chipped and cracked shows the passage of time and how it was transformed by the landscape. The plaque belongs to a series of works that pay homage to the objects that remain in Bidong and oscillate between monuments and ruins. Sixteen Days at Sea [Plaque of Gratitude To Mother Mary and Jesus Christ] is a testimonial object that bears witness to the real histories of the Vietnamese people that lived on Bidong. Collective and personal remembrance and the embrace of ancestral memory is a strong theme within Nguyen’s work and touches upon the ability for reconstruction and recomposition.