Tuan Andrew Nguyen The Unburied Sounds of a Troubled Horizon, 2022

The Unburied Sounds of a Troubled Horizon, 2022, is a single-channel video installation by Tuan Andrew Nguyen that explores the ways in which material contains memory and holds potential for transformation, reincarnation, and healing. The project is inspired by the people of Quang Tri, on the North Central Coast of Vietnam, which was one of the most heavily bombed areas in the history of modern warfare. For multiple generations, its residents have lived with the physical residue and lingering trauma of war. Since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, thousands of farmers have died from UXO (unexploded ordnances) and approximately 80 percent of Quang Tri is still contaminated by undetonated mines and explosives. In the face of this grim reality, the ongoing recovery and creative repurposing of these ordnances is a testament to the perseverance of the local community, which Nguyen observed firsthand during his time spent in the region. They have used these remnants of destruction as raw materials with which to build and rebuild their lives, for uses as varied as building materials, tools, craft, and currency.

The Unburied Sounds of a Troubled Horizon centers around a woman named Nguyet and her mother, who run a small junkyard on the outskirts of Quang Tri, and Nguyet’s cousin Lai. For the artist, Nguyet is both a fully fleshed character and a narrative vehicle for his own physical exploration of material memory. Nguyet earns her living scavenging and selling pieces of UXO. She grew up in post-war Vietnam, constructing memories and abstract images in her head of metal falling from the sky as she listened to stories told by her parents and other survivors of bombings and air raids. Nguyet compulsively crafts delicate hanging mobiles from the bomb scraps she salvages.

Her mother, who suffers from PTSD, believes that her daughter is hauntedand that the mobiles she makes are indicative of ghostly possession.However, Nguyet soon discovers by chance that these sculptures, whichare drawn from her imagination, hold a remarkable resemblance to theworks of Alexander Calder. She embarks on a journey to uncover thesource of this uncanny likeness–consulting along her way a spirit-mediumand a monk–before arriving at the realization that she is, in fact, thereincarnation of the famous American artist.

COLLECTIONS
Brooklyn Museum, New York
Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas
National Gallery Sinagpore, Singapore
Guggenheim Au Dhabi, Au Dhabi