Boone Nguyen

Boone Nguyen (b. 1968, Nha Trang, Vietnam) left Saigon with his family at age seven and resettled in South Philadelphia. He has served in curatorial and management positions in numerous community arts organizations, including Asian Arts Initiative, Frameline, and Scribe Video Center and has exhibited with Asian Arts Initiative, Indigo Bleu Gallery, and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. He holds an MA in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, San Diego and a BA in American Studies from Yale University. @NguyenBoone

Landscape Memory (2019) is a three- channel video installation exploring the lasting and nuanced impact of war on family, nature, and community. Traveling through rural Vietnam to interview both family members and family friends, Boone Nguyen pieces together familial narratives of trauma and remembering in the wake of the Vietnam War. He reinforces these notions in intimate interviews critically juxtaposed with images of reclaimed bomb craters and scenes of constant travel—by boat, bike, car, and bus. Funerary and burial practices are featured throughout the various video clips, teasing out the complexities of the questions: Who is remembered in the wake of war? How are they remembered? And by whom?

Artwork caption: Boone Nguyen, Landscape Memory, 2019, Still from three-channel video. Courtesy of the artist.