CHAU NGUYEN

WRITTEN BY NATALIE CRUZ

Chau Nguyen’s paintings and sand installation overflow with texture, rendering hours of labor undertaken by the artist visible to the viewer. The work is centered around Nguyen’s childhood memories in Vietnam, more specifically, of artwork displayed in storefronts – Western masterpieces replicated by Vietnamese artists. In these replicas, the artist’s hand is visible, but it is obscured by the subject matter and the medium of oil paint, often associated with colonial influences. Nguyen’s paintings decolonize canonical European artworks by removing the image entirely. Nguyen pushes the Vietnamese artist’s presence to the forefront of the work instead of delegating it to the background, which leaves it eclipsed by the Western image. Through the strategic use of texture and color, Nguyen reclaims Vietnamese agency in these works.

Nguyen’s paintings are created by 3D scanning and printing technology to produce the texture on the surface. This creates a distinction between the artist’s labor and the formation of the piece using technological assistance. To reinstate it, Nguyen then paints them black and bright red, a color ironically named “Colonial Red” by paint manufacturers. However, for Nguyen, the bright red is not associated with colonial aesthetics, but with traditional Vietnamese red lacquer paint.

The large-scale sand installation is the ultimate manifestation of Nguyen’s labor rendered visible by their manipulation of the gallery space itself. The textured, imperfect nature of the sand image on the floor calls attention to the artist’s hand in the work. Its grand presence makes the viewer aware of the artist’s command over their work and the gallery. Thus, the prominence of texture in these works functions to lay bare not only Nyugen’s labor, but also their intervention in colonial art histories through the work

NGUYEN PUSHES THE VIETNAMESE ARTIST’S PRESENCE TO THE FOREFRONT OF THE WORK

INSTEAD OF DELEGATING IT TO THE BACKGROUND, WHICH LEAVES IT ECLIPSED BY THE WESTERN IMAGE.

SURFACE MEMOIRS (above)

Dimensions variable.

Installation view.

SURFACE MEMOIRS (right)

Dimensions variable.

Installation view.

POSTCOLONIAL PLAYGROUND (opposite page)

Sand