Exhibition by Zack Nguyen
Vernissage:
Saturday, 9th of March – 6pm – 9pm
Opening hours:
Saturday, 9th of March – 6pm – 9pm
Sunday, 10th of March – 2pm – 7pm
Monday, 11th of March – 2pm – 7pm
Tuesday, 12th of March – 2pm – 7pm
Still and Seen, is a site-specific and socially engaged art exhibition that offers a safe space for connecting to vulnerable emotions. Both installations Amidst Tears and Hurt to Heart in this exhibition encourage the audience to slow down and be in the present moment, while fully immersed in a multi-sensory space filled with storytelling elements and participatory interaction. This first solo exhibition is Zack Nguyen’s experiment to tell his story while inviting meaningful interaction through aesthetic experiences.
Expressing emotions and showing vulnerability are often perceived as weaknesses. People tend to suppress their emotions and keep their tears hidden. This thematic exhibition, Still and Seen, encourages participants to channel their inner voices through storytelling and art experience.
During the first part, Still, the audience walks through the installation Amidst Tears. The audience experiences the site-specific installation which starts with artist’s personal story of suffering from depression and anxiety, then guides them through a metaphoric forest of tearful ups and downs of human experiences. Along with the alternative nature, the metaphor of a forest with collective stories told by others comforts the audience to speak about their own “cry” stories. Normalize crying when one experiences emotions whether happiness, anger, emptiness is the focus of this first theme.
During the state of Seen, this offers a meditative space for the audience to reflect, regulate emotions, discard traumatic stories, and together be seen. Participatory installation, Hurt to Heart, invites the audience to reflect and write about their current traumatic events on a piece of paper, then discard the paper by shredding it through the sculpture. The shredded paper is transformed into “discarded trauma” and later co-exists as a part of the whole exhibition. Though we experience traumas differently, we can have empathy for each other. In a community of shredding our reflections on personal trauma, nobody is alone on this healing journey.
Through thesis exhibition, the artist introduces the continuing impact of expressive art therapy foundation, neuroaesthetics – the interdisciplinary field of neuroscience and aesthetics, as well as influences from socially engaged and contemporary art on his creative practice at the intersection of art, design, and social engagement to explore pathways to social mental wellbeing, healing, and new care-based approach.
Artist’s Bio:
Zack Nguyen is a hybrid artist, designer and educator based in Dallas, Texas. He embraces the power of art and healing through a variety of media. His body of work expands to include painting, participatory installation, interactive art, performance, and photography. By employing artistic practice, observation, and approaches at the intersection of art, science, and expressive art therapy in his works, he creates works about identity, culture, and technology while inviting vulnerability.
Being exposed to memories while reflecting and revaluing his emotions is what inspires him to go beyond the boundaries of aesthetics to tell stories and create art experiences that invite the audience to join the journey of healing, conversation, and deeper reflection. He imagines himself as an art wizard in a magical world of peace. It excites him, the idea of bringing joy and connecting to others through meaningful interactions.
Zack is also an independent curator cultivating meaningful dialogues between art, technology and humanity through new media arts, installation and performances. Through his curation, he discovers many Dallas-based emerging artists who reflect, critique, engage, provoke thoughts, and challenge perceptions on complexities of human relationship with technology, and themes of identity, surveillance, artificial intelligence, and other-than human existence.
