Must See Exhibit: Teo Nguyen’s Việt Nam Peace Project, Minneapolis Institute of Art
Tuesday, August 9, 2022 at 1:37AMArticle by Becky Fillinger, photos provided
Teo NguyenTeo Nguyen’s Việt Nam Peace Project is on display at Mia until June 18 of next year. Don’t wait to see it – you might want to visit more than once. This exhibit features beautiful photorealist paintings that reference familiar, historic images by photojournalists documenting the war in Vietnam, but after removing the characteristics of war. The multi-media show is composed of the photorealist paintings, sculpture, a ten-panel mural of white lotus flowers and more. We talked to him about art and peace, our shared humanity and Minneapolis as his home of choice.
Q: You’ve said that "peace is a practice." Could you tell us a bit more about this idea? Was it a peaceful practice to create the works in this exhibit?
From the "Viet Nam Peace Project: Memories of Home" seriesA: When I say, “peace is practice,” I mean to actively engage in the art of empathy and knowledge seeking, especially with those I have yet to break bread with. Practicing peace is about forging a difference-friendly world. I have observed that we tend to fabricate our own answers to the people and places we don’t understand. This often results in hostility. One way to mitigate the conflict is to engage with different people and to share perspectives – thereby broadening our views. The Việt Nam Peace Project is my invitation to engage with curiosity, newness, and understanding of the cultural and spiritual lens through which my art was conceived. I resonate my Vietnamese American cultural values and my animist spirituality in my artwork – including my Midwest landscapes and abstracts. With the Việt Nam Peace Project, my cultural and spiritual lenses are intertwined with personal stories.
I emigrated to the United States at the age of 16 and soon observed the depictions of Vietnamese people, in documentaries, art exhibitions, cinema, and news, to be lesser, foreign, and bizarre. I also heard people speak of Vietnam, not as a country or a people, but a war. Rather than confronting this fallacy with discord, I sought to move my own narrative from the peripheral to the center of public discourse. Through this exhibition, I hope for us to find connectedness through our shared humanity. This is one way I practice peace.
Creating the Việt Nam Peace Project was reflective and meditative. It was a privilege for me to make a film about my mom and her poems - her cherished memories and her years of displacement. With Remembering Others, my paper installation, I show reverence for lives lost. I also present the sorrow imprinted in Vietnam’s landscapes through my paintings. The Agent Orange sculpture is my reminder of the continuing devastations of war on human and environment, even as the rest of the world forget. The Lotus, a symbol of peace and optimism, is presented in a large-scale mural and represent my hope that we will continue to learn and commit to peace as a practice.
Q: A 2017 study published in Frontiers of Human Neuroscience discussed the value of art to create empathy, social knowledge, and self-understanding – which can lead to greater peace among members of a society. Given that as a truth, how do we infuse more art into society to tamp down burgeoning conflict or misunderstandings?
A: I also believe in the transformative nature of art and the possibilities to affect social change. I say “possibilities” because art, as an institution, has room for improvement. We need to look no further than the canonized artists. How many are women compared to men? How many non-Europeans? My art practice, therefore, is my reimagining of a difference-friendly world. Significance and impact are too often defined by those with positional power. The consequences are the narrow and dominant narratives that are repeated until they are believed to be absolute truths. Through my art, I challenge these majoritarian narratives, particularly those that dehumanize differences.
Q: Will the pieces of this exhibition travel to Vietnam? I like your statement that your pieces can help us – Americans and Vietnamese – continue to move forward together.
A: To have the Việt Nam Peace Project exhibited in my adopted hometown is my dream realized. To have the Việt Nam Peace Project exhibited in the country where my parents and I were born is to have my artistic lineage fully realized.
Q: We visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC and look at the names of the 58,000+ U.S. soldiers who died in the Vietnam war and are overwhelmed. Most US citizens have no idea that over 3 million Vietnamese soldiers and civilians died during the same conflict. Without disparaging or minimizing any sacrifice, how do we encourage people to consider the full extent of war casualties?
A: Remembering Others, my paper installation, is my memorializing and expression of reverence for the Vietnamese and American lives lost during the war. The Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C. is 150 yards with 58,220 names of American soldiers inscribed on the black granite; if a similar monument were built with the same density of names of the Vietnamese who died in it, it would be 10 miles long. This Vietnam War Memorial shows that remembering while excluding is in itself a form of forgetting. While remembering others - oriented toward inclusion, is healing and reconciliatory. It can only be accomplished through an ethical memory that recalls not just one’s own, but also engages the memories of the “others.” For us to realize the full extent of war casualties, we must first eliminate the line that separate us and them. To make peace a practice is to find connectedness in our shared humanity. It is a shared responsibility, and it takes intentional work.
Q: My Being is a short film inspired by the poetry of your mother, Duong Anh Loi, who, like many Vietnamese, was displaced during the war. We will see this film during the Mia exhibit. Is your mother able to visit the exhibit? If so, will she read her poetry during the Việt Nam Peace Project exhibition?
A: My mother is living in Vietnam. It would be lovely for me to listen to her read her poetry in the exhibition. Unfortunately, she is elder, and her health prevents her from traveling. I feel extremely fortunate to have made the film while she is with us to view it.
Q: Why is Minneapolis home to you?
A: Seventeen years ago, Micah (my husband) and I put down our roots in Minneapolis, our adopted home. We visited Minnesota several times and fell in love with the natural beauty of rural Minnesota and the cultural offerings of the Twin Cities. We appreciate the quality of life, especially the significantly short commutes compared to Southern California. We continue to be drawn to how Minnesotans continue to welcome refugees, immigrants, and transplants. The exceptional level of civil discourse and civic engagement appeal to us. As Minnesotans, we seek to understand differences. Because of these things, I believe that the Việt Nam Peace Project, rightfully has its first showing in our hometown.
Q: Before working on large scale photorealistic paintings, did you create small studies with colored pencils or watercolors? If yes, are those available for viewing?
A: I bring a sketch book with me when I take long drives. Burnet Fine Arts have shown my studies in the past. The ones I’ve shown recently have been abstracts.
Q: How may we follow your news?
A: I have a website - TeoNguyen.com.
Also, see my works at Burnet Fine Arts in Wayzata, and L’Usine Gallery at 1107 Washington Avenue S.
