Anh-Thuy Nguyen (CV)

Anh-Thuy Nguyen (born 1983, Nha Trang city, Viet Nam) is a multi-media/transdisciplinary artist, whose work spans from photography, video to installation and performance art. Using her personal history as a resource, Anh-Thuy's work delves deeply into conflicting emotions, feelings, and thoughts through the portrayal of often strikingly strange yet hauntingly beautiful visual manifestations of gain and loss. She received a BFA in Photography from The University of Arizona and an MFA in Photography/ Video from Southern Methodist University. Anh-Thuy has exhibited and taught photography, painting, linoleum, performance art, and concept-driven workshops nationally and internationally. Her works are in permanent collections of Amarillo Museum of Art, Tucson Museum of Art, Center for Photography at Woodstock among others. She is currently based in Tucson, Arizona, where she is the head of the photography program at Pima Community College.

Artist Statement

I am interested in exploring and documenting my and other people’s socio-cultural and physiological behaviors. Using my Vietnamese history and my experiences as an immigrant as resources, my work investigates personal and cultural identities. I continuously search for ways to explore how I (Vietnamese) identify and label myself as a Vietnamese-American artist. I look into Vietnamese and American cultural forms, especially in food and languages.

Thuy & Rice portrays my responses to my Vietnamese heritage’s expectations and beliefs. The marriage between Thuy and the cultural impositions does not continue with a polite dialogue but is interrupted by a progression into Thuy’s cruel and disruptive actions.

Citizenship Project is my personal interpretation of documenting the American naturalization process. It is built upon my fascination with pass/fail measurements applied in this process, which harbors classism, racism, and societal paranoia. This project also expands my artistic interests to include screen print and graphic design alongside with my primary approaches: photography, video, installation and performance art. Citizenship’s installation transforms itself into a workspace, where serigraphs serve as wall decorations, and the ID card is simply a form of document.

While in Thuy & Sand, the subject travels along the deserted western landscape carrying her baggage filled with sand. As she walks, the landscape is altered and marked by her footprints. As she tries to level the landscape, she continues marking the land. A constant endless effort she pursues represents the inevitable cycle of life: creation and destruction.