© JUN NGUYEN-HATSUSHIBA, courtesy: Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo / the artist Commissioned by Yokohama Triennale 2001
Memorial Project Nha Trang, Vietnam: Towards the Complex – For the Courageous, the Curious, and the Cowards
| Artist | Jun NGUYEN-HATSUSHIBA |
|---|---|
| Year | 2001 |
| Material/ Technique | single channel digital video |
| Size/ Duration | 13 min. |
| Copyright Notice | © JUN NGUYEN-HATSUSHIBA courtesy: Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo / the artist Commissioned by Yokohama Triennale 2001 |
| Year of acquisition/ donation | 2002 |
| Description | Born in Tokyo, Japan in 1968. Lives and works in Houston, USA and Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba spent a year living in Vietnam with his Japanese mother and Vietnamese father in 1974 at the end of the Vietnam War before returning to Japan. The family then moved to the USA, where Nguyen-Hatsushiba graduated from art school. In 1997 he moved his base to Vietnam. With a strong consciousness of his own surroundings, Nguyen-Hatsushiba creates installations and video works using Asian foodstuffs and common items such as rice, mosquito nets, briquettes and cyclos. He gives expression to a world in which the everyday lives of individuals caught up in the political and social upheavals in the wake of the Vietnam War are complexly interwoven with their emotional turmoil, anguish, hope and lust for life. Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba’s “Memorial Project” is a series of works dedicated to the memories of the refugees who lost their lives, the refugees who tried to flee from their own countries, and those who were left behind, and also the everyday lives of individuals caught up in the political and social upheavals and their turmoil and lust for life. The video work "Memorial Project Nha Trang, Vietnam: Towards the Complex – For the Courageous, the Curious, and the Cowards" is the first in this series. Working in pairs, several young people pull cyclos along the seafloor. In their determination to move forward despite their physical struggle against the water pressure and current is implied the struggle of human beings to survive. The video work, "Happy New Year: Memorial Project Vietnam II", is based on the Tet Offensive launched on the Lunar New Year of 1968 during the Vietnam War. A dancing dragon makes its way through the water. Nearby is a Fate Machine shaped like a round basket, and each time the Fate Master turns it, spherical balls shoot out and rise to the surface emitting clouds of red and yellow powder. The powerful music of the bells and drums and the bright festive space vividly conveys to the physical senses the complex emotions and straitened circumstance of the people in post-war Vietnam. |
NOTES
This Collection Data page contains the works and materials in the collection of 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, as of April 1, 2018.
Artists are listed alphabetically by artist’s surname.
Works and materials by the same artists are listed according to the date of the work in principle.
Works whose dates are unidentified are listed at the end of each item. Some works are not listed according to the date of work due to their relations.
The data of works and materials are listed in order of title, production year, material/technique/form, dimensions, donor’s name, copyright holder and credit for photograph.
Dimensions are given by height (H) x width (W) in centimeters for plane work, and height (H) x width (W) x depth (D) in cm for 3-D work. Diameter (Ø) is used for circular work.
For the name of country or city, the name currently used in English is listed in principle.