Duong Thuy Nguyen is a London-based visual artist and writer with bylines in Art and Market, Ocula Magazine, and Plural Art. Duong worked as a researcher, specialist and lecturer at University of Theater and Performing Arts of Hanoi, Vietnam. She is currently studying under a scholarship in Master of Fine Art and works as a Changemaker at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London.
Duong is co-founder of An.OtherAsian, a Southeast Asian artist collective which organised and curated exhibitions at the Ugly Duck and the Koppel Project in 2022.
Exploring the intersections between contemporary art and social responsibility, Duong works with practice-based research that focuses on reflecting social cohesion, community identity, and the interaction between humans and nature.
Silent well - Mixed Media - 90cm x 30cm -2022
Silent Well, an interactive installation, features main well sculpture surrounded by soil and a series of flat cloud sculptures in various shapes. Relating to my ongoing interest in Hanoi's water management as well as magical elements borrowed from Vietnamese folk tales, Silent Well chronicles the iconic wells that sit in the centre of villages in the Red River Delta, where village life resources take place.
Revisiting the artist's installation work Unnamed Land, the installation developed the use of a water mechanism. Upon closer look, the viewer sees that the running water movement is moss mixed with air and water. Fusing the act of seeing and noticing, the system only moves by a sensor when the viewer comes close.
The work investigated the movement of air and water like a reflection on the lamentation of the villagers – who were forced away from their land to make way for more projects and urban developments.