The Hidden Face of Vietnam: The Fall and Rise of Photographer Khánh Ký
08 pm – 09:30 pm, Thurs 14 Sep 2023 (GMT+7)
Online via Google Meet
Registration link
From the organizer:
In the inaugural talk as part of Roots & Worlds, Vietnamese-Canadian visual artist & researcher Jacqueline Hoàng Nguyễn will shed light on the understudied life and work of photographer Khánh Ký. Recognized as the official portraitist of all the Governors in Indochina, Khánh Ký navigated with ability the French élite as well as the flourishing Vietnamese bourgeoisie while entrenched in the nationalist movement.
The portraits produced by Khánh Ký reveal a detournement of bourgeois aesthetics put to use for the local disenfranchised population. The commercial success of his studios during the first half of the XX century, from Haiphong, Hanoi, Nam Dinh to Saigon, is a testimony of a short-lived nascent counter-culture, striving for emancipation and modernity. Second, Nguyễn will discuss her strategies to integrate archival research into the production of a new artwork.
* English only
Jacqueline Hoàng Nguyễn is a Vietnamese-Canadian visual artist and researcher who relies on archival material and a broad range of media to investigate issues of historicity, collectivity, utopian politics and multiculturalism via feminist theories. She is currently a PhD candidate at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design & KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.
Nguyễn has held lectures on the history of photography in Vietnam during the colonial period at Musée du Quai Branly (2022), National Gallery Singapore (2022), and Tate Britain (2019). Her multidisciplinary work has been shown internationally at Bonniers Konsthall, MA*GA Museum, Sharjah Art Foundation, among others major art institutions.
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