The People of Asia Shall Never Forget
Tammy Nguyen, American, born 1984
2024
Watercolor, vinyl paint, pastel, screen printing, rubber stamping, hot stamping, and metal leaf on paper, stretched over wood and gator board panel
Overall: 45 × 55 in. (114.3 × 139.7 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Mrs. Harvey P. Hood W'18 Fund
© Tammy Nguyen. Courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Seoul, and London
2024.22
Geography
Place Made: United States, North America
Period
21st century
Object Name
Painting
Research Area
Mixed Media
Painting
Not on view
Label
Tammy Nguyen creates a landscape that crosses time and culture by interconnecting the history of Southeast Asia with classic Western literature. Inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy, Nguyen substitutes Mount Purgatorio with the Grasberg Mine in Indonesia, which was once known for its abundant copper and gold reserves. Chou En-Lai, the Premier of China, appears at the center of a delegation at the Bandung Conference in 1955, where he presented his vision of a world unaligned with the West during the Cold War era. This group of historical figures takes the place of the souls and spirits encountered by Dante and Virgil during their ascent of Mount Purgatorio. By weaving geopolitical realities with fiction, Nguyen addresses lesser-known South Asian histories through a blend of myth and visual narrative.
From the 2025 exhibition Weaving as Method: Intertwining Postcolonial Narratives in Contemporary Southeast Asian Art, curated by Haely Chang, Jane and Raphael Bernstein Associate Curator of East Asian Art
Exhibition History
Tammy Nguyen A Comedy of Mortals: Purgatorio, Lehmann Maupin Gallery, London, March 13-April 20, 2024
Provenance
The artist, Easton, Connecticut, March 2024; Lehmann Maupin, London, England, March 13 - April 20, 2024; sold to present collection, 2024.
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