Please come here and witness | Đời Gọi Biết Bao Lần, 2018
Teo Nguyenexpand_more
Acrylic on vellum, mounted to aluminumexpand_more
Gift of funds from Nivin MacMillanexpand_more 2023.8
Not on Viewexpand_more
Teo Nguyen’s tranquil rural scene, devoid of obvious human activity, is a reclamation of a landscape once scarred by violence and death during the American war in Vietnam (1954 1975). The painting references an iconic image by Associated Press photojournalist Horst Faas, who captured the aftermath of an assault by Viet Cong guerrillas near the Michelin rubber plantation northeast of Saigon on November 27, 1965. In the original black-and-white photograph, a masked Vietnamese litter bearer stands stoically in the foreground, overseeing the recovery of the bodies of dead American and Vietnamese soldiers scattered along the road. Nguyen's title, Please come here and witness, is a reminder of the atrocities that occurred here, but by omitting the evidence of war, and highlighting the beauty of the landscape, Nguyen suggests a hopeful, self determining future for the people of Vietnam.
Details
- Title
- Please come here and witness | Đời Gọi Biết Bao Lần
- Artist Life
- American (born Vietnam), born 1977
- Role
- Artist
- Accession Number
- 2023.8
- Curator Approved
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