Lao Oi, Lao A… (O Ancient One…)
Nhan Duc Nguyen (Vancouver )
Ritual Calling for Civic Harmony
Saturday November 8, 4pm
Nguyen will close his major project in Victoria by performing a special ritual calling for civic harmony on Saturday, November 8 at 4:00 pm. Everyone is welcome and admission is free.
Open Space is hosting a major interactive project by nationally recognized Vancouver artist Nhan Duc Nguyen. Nguyen’s Lao Oi, Lao A . . . (O Ancient One…) is comprised of artist’s residencies, a major installation, a public discussion and documentary publication planned to complement celebrations of British Columbia’s 150th Anniversary. The installation will open on October 17 during Canada Citizenship Week.
Lao Oi, Lao A… (O Ancient One…) is a Vietnamese shrine that calls for Harmony. It is often erected in public spaces to coincide with governmental events or during civic holidays. Drawing upon his early life in Qui Nhon, Vietnam, Vancouver artist Nhan Duc Nguyen tailors these shrines to Lao Noi Kieu as a community call for civic harmony, always attentive to particular locales, and especially to the issues and preoccupations of residents. Nguyen explains, “These shrines can also be erected by private organizations and individuals to ask for resolution and harmony if the matters pertain to the health and welfare of the state and its citizens”.
With the help of project coordinator Ami Muranetz and enthusiastic volunteers, Open Space facilitated Nguyen's project through a four-part residency with workshops at local schools, senior centres and other community groups such as James Bay New Horizons and the Inter-
Cultural Association of Greater Victoria. Nguyen interacted with Victoria’s communities through conversations on food, ideas of nation and citizenship—beginning with the definition of a ‘Victorian’—and he has invited broad participation in his art-making process (such as folding and embellishing origami paper boats) for the installation. Nguyen will be the artist-in-residence at Central Middle School working with teacher Donna Rogowski and her visual art classes before and during the exhibition.
Nguyen will also facilitate the Citizenship Tour for Camille Turner, also known as Miss Canadiana. In addition to her reign during the opening of Lao Oi, Lao A… (O Ancient One…), Miss Canadiana will visit Central Middle School and contribute to the public conversation Are You What You Eat? She will also visit interested organizations, businesses, and distribute BC 150 memorabilia.
Miss Canadiana's transport generously provided by Metro Lexus Victoria
The main components of Lao Oi, Lao A… (O Ancient One…) are:
CHAT VICTORIA is an uncensored mass of questions (verbatim or statements-made-into questions) posted on the gallery walls in mirror-script. Viewers are invited to use small hand held mirrors to read them. The questions are based on conversations about food, nation and citizenship, Victoria's bestkept secrets and survey the musings of famous and anonymous Victorians, saints, school children,pundits and even the Prime Minister of Canada. The texts were gathered from participants, publications and public speakers or have been transcribed from interviews conducted during Nguyen's residencies in Victoria. Nguyen plans to bring sections of these questions to post on the walls of coffee shops, restaurants, bookstores, hotels, shops and other public spaces in Victoria. These satellite locations of CHAT VICTORIA will continue after the exhibition.
DNA STRAND, VICTORIA is a graphic gallery of hundreds of passport-sized photo portraits collected from Victorians, framed in slender pieces of mirror that resemble a double helix strand of DNA. Atop the mirror DNA strand are hundreds of origami paper boats made by students, seniors and others during Nguyen’s workshops.
O NATION O CITIZEN samples text and audio tapes gathered for display in the Open Space Resource Centre, among art magazines, catalogues and artists’ books. The texts include winning essays from the Institute of Canadian Citizenship and CBC sponsored “What Citizenship Means to Me” 2007; texts from the Dominion Institute “The Great Canadian Questions” essay winners and runners-up as well as the results of Ipsos Reid polls commissioned by the Institute. Audiotapes of the LaFontaine-Baldwin Lectures will be available at Open Space, too. Woven with these audio lectures are taped informal conversations between Nguyen and the people he talked to in Victoria.
Core sample from the mountain of fruit and flowers is a rotating 4-metre high column festooned with thousands of silk flowers and decorations, along with edible ‘core samples’ made by restaurants in Victoria for the opening. Participating restaurants include Koto Japanese Restaurant and Pho Vy Vietnamese Restaurant.
Are You What You Eat? is the question for a public conversation with Nhan Duc Nguyen, Miss Canadiana, and other well-known conversationalists and audience members. Open Space will host the conversation at 2pm Saturday, October 18, 2008.
Heyseeds is a series of gilded platforms displaying photos of Victoria-centric memorabilia and a two-hour video projection of animist rituals from Northern Vietnam calling for Harmony. Nguyen has snapped hundreds of photos and received nearly as many from people he’s met. These photos are to be made into decorations for display by the students at Central Middle School in September.