Nguyễn Huy An (b. 1982, Vietnam) reflects on the emotive associations of everyday materials, exploring themes of memory and isolation in his practice. Expressed as installations, paintings, sculptures and performance, his works mediate the artist’s desire to trace the interiority of self and the psychology of human behaviour. He is known for performances that are almost meditative. With precision, Nguyễn Huy An measures, captures and consolidates what is intangible, formless and conceptual, using the humblest of materials: strands of hair, threads of textile, coal, ink and dust, etc. The shadowy and melancholic hue of these materials and the personal meaning that the artist attaches to them—his mother’s hair, crafters’ textile threads from his childhood village—convey a yearning for bygone times lost in the brutal tides of modernity.

In 2010, Nguyễn Huy An co-founded the performance art collective Phu Luc (The Appendix Group) with Vietnamese artists Vũ Đức Toàn and Hoàng Minh Đức. He has participated, either solo or with Phu Luc, in exhibitions and performance art festivals in Vietnam, Japan, Singapore, Norway, China, France, amongst others. In 2018, Nguyễn Huy An spent six-months in Ho Chi Minh City with Phu Luc as resident artists of MoT+++’s performance plus programme.