Pipo Nguyen-duy

 

 

Pipo Nguyen-duy (b. 1962 Hue, Vietnam) grew up within thirty kilometers of the demilitarized zone of the 18th Parallel, where gunfire was heard every day of his life until he immigrated to the United States as a political refugee in 1975. Today, he is the studio art department chair at Oberlin College (Oberlin, Ohio) and has received numerous awards for his work about the effects of war on Vietnam and its people.

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In 2005, Nguyen-duy returned to Vietnam to start a project about the landscape that bore the physical scars of the war, and the people who survived its horrors. Girl by the River (2013) and Girl Sleeping (2013) are from the series "My East of Eden" which reclaims his real and imagined childhood memories and fantasies growing up in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. By working with rural Vietnamese children in school uniforms, he addresses the concepts of legacy, hope, and regeneration. These staged photographs are reminiscent of 19th-century British landscape paintings where the environment and its inhabitants existed in harmony. Against the backdrop of the once-scarred landscape, "My East of Eden" is a celebration of the resilience and beauty of humanity.

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More information on Pipo Nguyen-duy's work 

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