FLUX 2021 - David Nguyen

Email: david.hai@live.com
Website: https://nguyenerartist.wixsite.com/davidnguyen
Instagram: @nguyenerartist

David Nguyen is a Vietnamese Canadian artist located in Brantford, Ontario. His artworks cull from the diaspora through historical and cultural customs, as well as personal experience. Nguyen started these explorations in 2017 to further understand Vietnamese culture through his connections to his deceased father. His investigations take on culturally rich associations with food, textiles, religion, and domestic rituals. He also explores identity by way of self and family portraiture where he uses colour, light, prosthetics, and body paint as a means to affect the viewer’s physical and emotional state. 

Artist Statement

Among the younger generations, we see minorities rejecting their own cultural identity, history as a result of being strongly influenced by Western culture. I struggled a lot with my identity as a Vietnamese Canadian, from rejecting my own language, cultural history, and even adopting another culture. My work explores the understanding of one’s own culture, history, death, family, language and identity. Through my artwork, I depict my own research, knowledge and my parents’ teaching about my cultural roots and imbed this concept to educate and incentivize others to learn.

My works come in various mediums such as: sculpture, interactive pieces, performance, photography, video and more. Each concept’s presentation is carefully thought out to maximize the effect on the viewer both physically and emotionally. For the majority of my work, I take into consideration the viewers feeling towards the work, allowing me to create work that is uncomfortable or very-in-your-face, as seen in, Lie Within my Smile (2020), Comfort (2020), and Con La Nothing (2019). The elegant presentation of Budding Life (2017), Last Meal (2020) and Journey (2019) demonstrate the amount of thought I put into presenting my work, which displays my exploration of my culture and identity.

There are many artists that inspired and influenced my current art practice. Some examples are Lee Ming Wei, Adad Hannah, Keith Haring, David Wojnarowicz and Carrie Mae Weems. Their works revolve around interaction, connection and human labor/ body. These artists explore concepts of identity and where they are from, assisting me in my journey to understand who I am and where I am from. In doing so, I wanted to help educate others about my own learning and encourage them to keep their own tradition and culture alive.

Interview

What is your background? 

I am a Vietnamese born Canadian currently residing in the city of Brantford. From being in the diaspora community, it was a struggle to fit in either Western culture or Vietnamese leading towards rejecting my identity. During 2017, my father was diagnosed with kidney cancer. Due to the news, it really became an internal conflict that became my spark for my current art practice. 

How have your lived experiences informed your artistic practice?

Through my experience, I used them as a pivotal point within my current art practice. This allows me form connection and interact with my viewers through similar experience. In my series, Self Understanding I wanted to be able to display my learning process in understanding who I am and my culture. After losing my father, I felt I never showed him my work and I wanted him to be proud for what I create and my initiation to learn about my Vietnamese heritage.

Do you have a favourite work of art that inspires you?

From all the artists that I looked at, the one that mainly inspire me is Lee Ming Wei. His Mending Project and Dining Project were the ones that became my favourite. I love the participation component of the work as it allows the deeper connection and strengthening the artist and viewers interaction to fruition. From the work it affects the physical and emotional of the viewers that transpire into my work.

What is your usual artmaking process like? What are your preferred mediums?

When delving into the work, I try to research about my culture/history, my own experience, and phrases. From there, I look for how I want to portray the concept which I go through social media to get some inspiration. I would sketch the work and modifying the work until I am happy with the result. After the planning, it all depends on the topic/concept that decides the mediums that I use for the work. I mainly work with SFX makeup, body paint, sculpture, interactive piece, performative, photography, video and more.