Nguyen Huy An

Known for performances that are almost meditative in the precision they are undertaken with, Nguyen Huy An measures, captures and consolidates what is intangible, formless and conceptual, using the most humble of materials: strands of hair, threads of textile, coal, ink, and dust. The vividly shadowy and melancholic hue of these materials and the personal meaning Nguyen attaches to them — the hair of his mother, the textile threads of crafters from his childhood village — convey a yearning for fading times in the face of brutal modernity.

Nguyen Huy An has participated in a number of exhibitions and performance art festivals over the last decade including Looking for the Divine Beings, Nha San Collective (2017); 14th Istanbul Biennial — SALTWATER: A Theory of Thought Forms, curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Istanbul, Turkey (2015); Mien Meo Mieng/Contemporary Art from Vietnam, Bildmuseet, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden (2015); Residual: Disrupted Choreographies, Carré d'Art — Musée d'Art Contemporain, Nimes, France (2014); If The World Changed, Singapore Biennale (2013); sounds of dust (somniloquy), 943 Studio Kunming, China (2011); Anatomy of an assembly line with an error, Nha San Studio, Hanoi, Vietnam; Lim Dim, Stenersen Museum, Oslo, Norway (2009); Tam Ta, Sàn Art, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (2009); and the Nippon International Performance Art Festival (NIPAF), Tokyo, Japan (2007).

In 2010 he co-founded, together with artists Vu Duc Toan and Hoang Minh Duc, the performance art collective The Appendix Group (Phụ Lục). The group has performed at festivals in Vietnam, Singapore and China.

Nguyen Huy An currently lives and works in Hanoi, Vietnam.