Art project “Hồi Sóng", consisting of archival study and sound installation by two Vietnam-based artists Nhung Nguyễn and Zach Sch, is available in both digital form at hoisong.art and physical form at Sàn Art – an art space based in Saigon, Vietnam.
From the original intent of exploring the intangible cultural heritage, specifically the oral history documented in the historical archives, the artist duo adopts sound installation as their medium to explore the relationships between archived information and sound arts. Originally and spanning from the topics centered around the lives of soldiers and workers imported from French colonies in Africa and Vietnam, the project extends to historical brushstrokes of the peoples from Egypt, Algeria, Mali, Martinique and Indochina (composed of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia) and their wartime assignments, living conditions, their feelings and memories reminisced 60 years after the end of World War II.
Accordingly, the installation work aims to juxtapose the archival materials from the said topics with music and sound designs. The artist duo assesses archives’ respective socio-cultural contexts and their attached literary and musical materials to architect the recordings. While Nhung focuses on the oral recordings, Zach places greater emphasis on sound experiments.
Being an on-going and expanding project, the two artists Nhung Nguyễn and Zach Sch welcome all precious feedback, if any. Feel free to offer your feedbacks here
To experience the works, please select ARTWORK in the Menu.
To read further the research materials and backgrounds, please select DOCUMENTATION in the Menu.
Nhung Nguyen is an emerging Vietnamese sound artist currently based in Hanoi, experimenting across a range of left-field aesthetics and expressions – ambient drone, electro acoustic, noise music, musique concrete, amongst others.
Since 2014 Nhung has been making works under the moniker Sound Awakener – and under her real name, for the more cinematic, piano-driven projects. She has worked with international labels such as Time Released Sound (US), Unknown Tones Records (US), Soft (France), Flaming Pines (UK), Fluid Audio (UK), Syrphe (Germany).
In addition to her solo work, Nhung has collaborated with artists from various other disciplines, often adding audio elements to visual experiences. Nhung’s music and sounds have appeared in exhibitions such as Liberation Radio (2021), Citizen Earth (2020, Hanoi), Le Giang’s D'eau et de verdure (2020, Hanoi), Phan Thao Nguyen’s Poetic Amnesia (HCMC and Hanoi, 2017), the public-art initiatives Into Thin Air (2016) and Into Thin Air 2 (2018) – both in Hanoi, Richard Streimatter-Tran’s Departures (Hong Kong, 2017), amongst others. As a composer for moving image, Nhung has also worked on music compositions for short films and video art.
Zach Sch’s present practice seeks out points of dialogue between compositional and the visceral, textural capacity of sound. This includes the physicality of sound as an environmental medium and explorations of new dynamics in compositional structure and sound design. Beside his solo work, he is a member of Rắn Cạp Đuôi Collective and Mona Evie which are sound based multi-media projects in which he co-shares conceptual productions, and engineering duties.
Recent collaborations and residencies have pushed his research towards developing techniques and technologies that reframe approaches to aural art and ethnomusicology. An ongoing project looks into reclaiming the Đông Sơn drum, a traditional instrument of the northern Bronze Age Lạc Việt peoples through digital technologies. With his writing partner Nhung Nguyen, they are also creating works spanning across fields of contemporary classical music and installation/ multimedia art.
New projects include Hồi Sóng / (r)tu(r)n with Nhung Nguyen and Sàn Art, and a new album soon to be released on Subtext Recordings in June. His work has been featured in galleries and programs in the UK, Japan, France, South Korea, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Germany, Colombia, Australia, the Netherlands, China, Switzerland, and the US.
Sàn Art, founded in 2007 in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) as an artist-initiated, non-profit art platform, has since become a leading art organization dedicated to nurturing and challenging common modes of viewing and thinking about visual art through exhibition, critical discourse, educational initiatives and residency programs. Past projects include Sàn Art Laboratory (2012-2015), an art residency program, and Conscious Realities (2013-2016), a series of events and publications on the Global South. In 2018, Sàn Art developed Uncommon Pursuits—a seminar-workshop for emerging Southeast Asian curators and opened a new gallery in downtown HCMC with a focus on intergenerational dialogues between modern and contemporary art. In this new chapter in the organization’s history, Sàn Art aims to be a community-driven space where experimental practices and fresh perspectives are fostered and shared among interdisciplinary artists, curators, scholars, cultural workers and audiences in the region.
