Chisenhale Gallery Director Zoé Whitley & Curator Ellen Greig On Thao Nguyen Phan’s First UK Solo Show

Chisenhale Gallery presents Becoming Alluvium, the first solo exhibition in a UK institution by Vietnamese artist Thao Nguyen Phan. Working with painting, installation and moving image, Phan’s work explores history and tradition through non-fiction and fictional narratives. Becoming Alluvium continues Phan’s ongoing research about the Mekong River, which runs through Tibet, China, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Composed of two elements – a single channel film work and a series of lacquer and silk paintings – the works simultaneously explore real and imaginary worlds.

The exhibition’s curator Ellen Greig tells Something Curated: “In partnership with producers and commissioners Han Nefkens Foundation, Joan Miró Foundation, Barcelona and WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels, Chisenhale Gallery has been working with Thao for almost 18 months on this new commission. I feel that Thao’s new body of work is important to consider at this moment in time as her work brings focus to urgent global conversations concerning the extraction of the Earth’s resources and climate change, told from the context of South Vietnam. Becoming Alluvium tells a story of the Mekong River – an immensely important 700-mile-long waterway that runs through six countries in South East Asia. Through using both moving image and painting Thao’s exhibition weaves narratives on human’s excessive mining, damming and consumption of the river’s resources, with storytelling, folklore and myth. Despite that this river is such a life force for so many countries and is facing extreme drought, we see little coverage of this crisis here in the UK and Europe.”

Becoming Alluvium is structured around three chapters telling stories of destruction, reincarnation and renewal, centred around the ebb and flow of the Mekong River. Combining self-shot footage, animation and found imagery, the work weaves narratives concerning industrialisation, food security and ecological sustainability with fable. An accompanying series of paintings titled Perpetual Brightness, made in collaboration with artist Truong Cong Tung, further explore the cultural, agricultural and economic significance of the river. The watercolour on silk paintings depict characters in various states – from insects playing musical instruments to a young boy caressing an endangered Irrawaddy dolphin. Presented in frames made with Vietnamese lacquer, eggshell and silver leaf, the series tell stories of the past, present and future of the Mekong River and its inhabitants.

Chisenhale Gallery Director Zoé Whitley tells SC: “Thao Nguyen Phan’s practice poetically marries the urgencies of confronting history in the present. She creates space for us to interrogate the convenient glorifications and equally expedient omissions in the re-telling of our histories, and in our experiences of the places that shape us. That she so beautifully illuminates the synergies between painting, sculpture and moving image in nuanced ways means that our audiences will encounter profoundly moving works unlike those they’ve previously seen. Ellen Grieg, as curator of this project, working with Assistant Curator Amy Jones, has demonstrated a truly care-laden approach to working with Thao to present the new commission Becoming Alluvium this autumn.”

Chisenhale Gallery commissions and produces contemporary art, supporting international and UK-based artists to pursue new directions and to make their most ambitious work to date. The gallery has an award winning, 37-year history as one of London’s most innovative forums for contemporary art. On the upcoming show, Greig comments: “I guess with this exhibition we will experience what it is like to share moving image together in the gallery space again and learn how to do this safely within this new reality where we have to put health first.”

Thao Nguyen Phan, Becoming Alluvium at Chisenhale Gallery | 26 September 2020 – 6 December 2020



Feature image: Thao Nguyen Phan, Becoming Alluvium (still) (2019) Commissioned and produced by the Han Nefkens Foundation in collaboration with: the Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona; WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels; and Chisenhale Gallery, London