In The Studio: Tuan Andrew Nguyen - The healing power of art

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 9 September 2024

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tuan Andrew Nguyen, who was born in Vietnam in 1976, was only two years old when his family were made refugees by the war. They ended up in Texas, in the US and in his early twenties, he decided to return to the city his parents had once fled. Here in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon, Tuan has become an artist of many mediums. Telling stories through film, sculpture and installations, his work often explores how memories haunt the present and the power of art to heal. Reporter Eliza Lomas joins Tuan in his home studio and workshop, as he shares his process for creating an ongoing series of resonant mobile sculptures. Made from once highly explosive bomb material left over from the war, Tuan reflects on how beliefs in animism and reincarnation inform his work, and why he’s drawn to transforming these objects of war, which are still excavated on a daily basis in Vietnam, into resonant sculptures of peace.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Eliza Lomass and this is the documentary in the studio from the BBC World Service
0:06.8	The program that goes inside the minds of the most creative people. Capital City Hanoi. Just around the corner from me in a tiny urban lake surrounded by houses lay the remnants of a B-52 American bomber plane.
0:31.0	It was shot down in December 1972 by Vietnamese forces.
0:37.9	More than 50 years later, it's still there, a decaying symbol of this country's painful past.
0:47.0	In this episode, I spent time with a Vietnamese-born artist
0:50.6	who was only two years old when his family were made refugees by the conflict,
0:55.0	ending up in Texas, United States.
0:58.0	Hello, my name is Twon Andrew Wynne.
1:01.0	I am a filmmaker and an artist. I live in work in Hochiman City.
1:09.6	This is the place Twan's family once fled, but it's also where he returned to live in his late 20s.
1:17.8	Nestled among the narrow bustling alleyways of Hochimen's cities,'s Foonon district is Twan's home studio, where I've come to meet him.
1:27.0	His studio looks out onto a motor bike garage, and his two friendly rescue dogs also come to say hello.
1:34.0	One side has computer screens set up for editing film footage.
1:39.0	On the opposite wall are rows of neat shelves.
1:43.0	And what have you got in all these very tidy boxes?
1:46.0	Different things.
1:48.0	Some stickers, paints, markers, video, camera equipment.
1:54.0	We try to keep it organized, but as you can see, it's slowly
1:56.2	becoming disorganized.
1:58.3	There are several strands to Tuan's practice,
2:01.2	as mirrored in the setup of his studio. He tells stories through film, sculpture and
2:07.2	installations. He's eager to show me a recent creation. He picks up a meditation bowl made from brass and circles the
	...

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