Thảo Nguyên Phan (Thao-Nguyen Phan)
Vietnam
 

Thao-Nguyen Phan will expand her research on the introduction of the Latin alphabet as a writing system in Vietnam, exploring how the same transition occurred in other Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

Thảo Nguyên Phan (Thao-Nguyen Phan)

22 February - 24 March 2017

Thao-Nguyen Phan will expand her research on the introduction of the Latin alphabet as a writing system in Vietnam, exploring how the same transition occurred in other Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. In Vietnam, the Romanised script was first introduced in the 17th century by catholic missionaries to spread Christianity, playing a significant role in the process of colonization of the country. While official accounts celebrate the adoption of the Latin alphabet as a symbol of modernity, the implications of this historical process are far more complex and tell stories of cultural loss and gain, national amnesia, and violence.

Images
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Thảo Nguyên Phan, 3 January – 26 January 2017 and 22 February – 24 March 2017, Courtesy NTU CCA Singapore.
Thảo Nguyên Phan, 3 January – 26 January 2017 and 22 February – 24 March 2017, Courtesy NTU CCA Singapore.
Thảo Nguyên Phan, 3 January – 26 January 2017 and 22 February – 24 March 2017, Courtesy NTU CCA Singapore.
Thảo Nguyên Phan, 3 January – 26 January 2017 and 22 February – 24 March 2017, Courtesy NTU CCA Singapore.
Thảo Nguyên Phan, 3 January – 26 January 2017 and 22 February – 24 March 2017, Courtesy NTU CCA Singapore.
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Contributors
Thảo Nguyên Phan
Thảo Nguyên Phan
Artist-in-Residence
Vietnam

Thao-Phan Nguyen focuses on historical events, traditional narratives through a combination of painting, video, performance, and installation. She has the ability to condense the manifold references to history, literature, philosophy, and theory that always frames her research into poetic works that open up new spaces for reflection. In 2016, she is the protégé of American artist Joan Jonas within the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, a programme which pairs gifted young artists with internationally recognised masters, sponsoring them to spend a year in a one-to-one mentoring relationship. Her recent exhibitions include Poetic Amnesia (2017), the Factory Contemporary Art Centre, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and Nha San Collective, Hanoi, Vietnam; Concept Context Contestation, Art and the Collective in South East Asia, Goethe Institut, Hanoi, Vietnam (2016); Haunted Thresholds: Spirituality in Contemporary Southeast Asia, Kunstverein Göttingen, Germany, (2014). and Tâm Tã, Hanoi Fine Arts Museum, Vietnam (2014). In 2018, she was the Grand Prize winner of the APB Foundation Signature Art Prize, organised by Singapore Art Museum. Nguyen founded the collective Art Labor together with artist Truong Cong Tung and curator Arlette Quynh-Anh Tran Phan in 2012.