ARCHITECTURES OF INTIMACY
Curated by Anh Đào Hà
With works by Tra My Nguyễn, Vân-Nhi Nguyễn, Z.T. Nguyễn, Vy Trịnh, and Hạ-Lan Văn
March 28 - April 23, 2025
NARS Foundation (Main Gallery), 201 46th Street, 4th Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11220
NARS Foundation is pleased to present Architectures of Intimacy, an exhibition featuring works by Tra My Nguyễn, Vân-Nhi Nguyễn, Z.T. Nguyễn, Vy Trịnh, and Hạ-Lan Văn. The exhibition examines the material logic of Vietnamese spaces, where objects shift between roles, blending the practical with the poetic. Through sculpture, photography, textiles, and mixed media, these artists explore how everyday materials shape memory, labor, and transformation.
Taking its name from Thuy Linh Nguyen Tu’s concept of architectures of intimacy, the exhibition highlights how Vietnamese spaces are built on improvisation, humor, and adaptability. A room divider becomes a wall, a garment becomes motorbike parts, and objects take on new lives without losing their history. Vy Trịnh maps these material networks in Saigon, where repurposing is a way of life. Tra-My Nguyễn reflects on the motorbike as both a daily necessity and a site of cultural meaning, recalling its place in childhood memories and globalized perceptions. Vân-Nhi Nguyễn stages photographs that blur past and present, where nostalgia meets the rhythms of contemporary life.
Memory is embedded in materials, not as nostalgia, but as a way of seeing. Hạ-Lan Văn carves wooden totems that could belong in traditional craft villages but reshapes them into unexpected forms, shifting how tradition is understood. Z.T. Nguyễn layers paper and packaging in ways that echo the quiet acts of preservation, where even the most disposable materials are saved and repurposed.
Thuy Linh Nguyen Tu’s term architectures of intimacy originally examined the relationships between Asian American designers and immigrant garment workers, revealing disparities in labor and cultural recognition. Similar dynamics emerge in how these artists engage with Vietnam’s material landscape. Tu critiques the tendency to fixate on singular cultural symbols, warning that such representations risk flattening complex realities into digestible, marketable icons. In contrast, the works in this exhibition reflect the inherent adaptability of Vietnamese life: the ability to find poetry in the everyday and transform materials without erasing their histories.
Rather than presenting Vietnam as a static spectacle, these artists engage with its evolving spaces of improvisation. Their works reflect a material language shaped by floral prints, dark wood, aluminum, plastic, and objects that shift between function and meaning. Architectures of Intimacy does not offer a singular narrative but instead underscores Vietnam’s ever-changing nature, shaped by movement, adaptation, and the poetic rhythms of daily life. By resisting fixed definitions, the exhibition creates space for an ongoing dialogue, allowing Vietnam to be seen as dynamic, resourceful, and continually unfolding.
Photos by Yi Hsuan Lai
Graphic Identity by Amy Fang