Artist
Artist
Ngoc Nau
Vietnam
Profile
Ngoc was born in Thai Nguyen province, Vietnam in 1989 but now lives in Ho Chi Minh City. Ngoc is a multimedia artist whoes ancestry originates from the Kinh ethnic region of northern Vietnam. She graduated from Vietnam University of Fine Arts majoring in Vietnamese Art History and Critique. Her recent exhibitions consist of “Singapore Biennale 2019” (2019, National Gallery Singapore, etc), Singing to the choir? (2019, The Factory Arts Centre, Ho Chi Minh City), “Deciphering Dwelling” (2018, Hatch Art Project, Singapore).
Based in Ho Chi Minh City, Ngoc Nau uses holograms and augmented reality to create her work. Attention was drawn to her when she exhibited a work on this theme at the 6th Singapore Biennale in 2019. This work deals with ‘Len Dong’, a typical ritual of the worship of the mother goddess which was forbidden by the early Vietnamese Communist Party.
Through a spirit medium, the dancer encounters the various deities worshipped in Vietnam, but the women in the film are depicted as abstract figures using modern technology. With rhythms set to contemporary pop music, the film attempts to portray the transformation of a former religious ritual into a modern belief of insatiable desire.
