Vivian Tran

Circling Around, 2024
Found newspapers, found crate, handmade ceramic bowls, chopsticks, video.
Dimensions variable
Courtesy of the artist

My work often references familiar symbols and actions intrinsic to everyday life. I use found archival footage to collapse historical, familial, and personal memory into the present moment. When my mother grew up in Vietnam, she worked as a seamstress, mending others’ torn things. Likewise, I think of my videos as a textile, where the movement of bodies becomes a needle, seaming together fragmented moments across time and space. I’m currently drawn to the tension between the cliché and the profound. When, how, and why do the overlooked rituals and materials of daily life begin to feel sacred, capable of reminding us of our aliveness? I’m interested in how subtle gestures, such as framing and lighting, can reveal a lyrical potential already present in the everyday. I work with found materials—newspapers, cardboard, and archival footage of figures walking in the backgrounds, solitary birds in flight, sunrises, sunsets, and the night sky. Circling Around is an installation I first created for a community dinner in Boston that was organized by Copenger, an arts collective I co-founded. The dinner was inspired by family traditions of dining together on the floor. Each iteration of this installation is different, put together from locally sourced newspapers, crates, bowls, and chopsticks. The video in the center collages clips of birds I found flying in the backgrounds of archival footage. Like a needle seaming through fabric, the bird stitches a continuous path across disparate moments and places. My practice is rooted in the belief that by looking closely—especially at what’s most invisible and overlooked—we can find traces of everything else expressed within it.

This floor installation was originally created as part of an experimental art & community dinner hosted by Copenger on February 19, 2025 in Boston, MA. This event takes inspiration from traditional Vietnamese family dinners where people gather around on the floor on chiếu (woven mats). Through the contributions by members of the community, we served guests a three-course dinner, incorporating family recipes and handmade ceramics, weaving together a night full of art, food, and people. At OCCCA and through VAALA, this iteration of Circling Around invites viewers to sit, commune, and converse as a means for connection whilst viewing the video works in an immersive space. 

Sunrise and Sunset, 2023
Video projection, 7 minute 22 second loop
Courtesy of the artist

Vivian Tran’s sun installation works merge together time and space in conjunction with physical and digital environments. She merges found footage of sunrises and sunsets and creates video collages that work in tandem with the “real-time” rise and fall of the sun in the space that the work is being shown in. Seaming together these video collages helps with the enduring plight of the constant motion of day to day life and allows for an immersive distilling of time and place. 

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Artist Interview

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

I currently work primarily in video installation, pairing projection with found materials. My work often references familiar symbols and actions intrinsic to everyday life. Framing, lighting, and restraint are my favorite languages. I make use of these subtle gestures to return agency back to the materials I find. I do not view myself as a narrator, but more of a pointer finger. My role is not to heavily interfere with the found objects, but to frame them, so they can best speak for themselves. I am drawn to lyrical gestures that can pierce through the monotony of repetitive day-to-day routines. It’s these quiet moments of feeling deeply connected to the world that have saved me. 

I recently revisited one of my journals from high school, which was over five years ago, and found a line I wrote that stood out to me: “In whatever I do, I hope to continue loving the world no matter what.” I forgot that I wrote this. There was so much conviction in this statement and I think it encapsulates what I want to achieve in my work going forward. I think loving the world can feel like a process of discovery. The forms my work will take will definitely change and shift in response to feelings and everyday life, but I know my process is rooted in the belief that if I look deeply anywhere, especially in places that seem unusual and overlooked, that I will always find love. Ultimately, I want to be a vehicle for this love.