Thao Nguyen Phan

The work “The Rise” and ”The Flower” is a part of Poetic Amnesia, a research project and body of works created by Thao Nguyen Phan. The artist creates a sphere of dreams rooted in historical and contemporary contexts of Vietnam, dreams that wander across language, territory, ideology, banality and fantasy. The white dove sculpture in the artwork was a public artifact acquired by the artist from the streets of Saigon during a new year celebration, a time when decorative renditions of flowers, vines and birds are installed all over the city to accentuate the crisscrossing atmosphere of festivity, unity and peace. Urban relics of joyfulness could either obscure or activate our memories of a country’s deep scars after long nights of warfare, conquest, dispossession and separation.

Based on text by Nguyen Hoang Quyen. From Opaque Signs, exhibition text for San Art