Ritual Objects 1
Ngoc Nau (2022)
Materials: multimedia installation (edition 1/5), found handkerchiefs, mirror, video film. Duration: 5’. Dimensions: variable.
b. 1989, Thái Nguyên, Vietnam; lives and works in Thái Nguyên and Hanoi.
Lender: private collection
Ngoc Nau’s works have been shown at Documenta 15 (2022), Art Basel Hong Kong (2023), the Thailand Biennale (2021), and the Singapore Biennale (2019), among others. In 2024, she was a fellow at the New Folkwang Residency in Essen. The starting point for Ngoc Nau’s video-based collages is often her place of origin, the province of Thái Nguyên. The mountainous region in the northeast of Vietnam has changed in recent decades from an agricultural area to an important location for the metal and electronics industry. Ngoc Nau chose a former Samsung factory in Thái Nguyên as the location for her studio. Her work explores identity, memory, and technology at the interface between reality and virtuality.
This is also true for her installation Ritual Objects 1 presented in Paper, Rock, Scissors. Small round mirrors are glued to cloth handkerchiefs. The handkerchiefs, typical of Vietnam, serve as a projection surface for the film, a montage of footage of religious ceremonies, animations, and documentaries about Samsung Electronics in Thái Nguyên. In spiritual rituals, mirrors are used to ward off evil spirits and misfortune, explains Ngoc Nau regarding the materials she used for Ritual Objects 1. She plays with technologically based elements that interact with traditional materials. At present, technology is infiltrating and controlling everyday life and influencing human behavior. This is changing the way we perceive the world around us, says Ngoc Nau. She therefore wonders how the future will unfold. (1)
Mona Jas