Do you see me ? (# 1+ 2), loop, 2012
16:9, 1 video channel, 1 audio channel

In her video installation "Do you see me?" the artist Lu Nguyen addresses artistic work and life with art itself. In the process, she stages herself and uses her own body, as in many of her works, as an artistic medium. She describes to us a world of work with art, as the romanticising art lover does not expect. An existential theme for her situated between seriousness and subtle humour. 

A part of Lu Nguyen's installation "Do you see me" is first presented as a locked art transport. A lift truck carries an art transport crate, which turns out to be a kind of mobile studio. Inside the crate is a square, white table. In front of it is a stool uncomfortable piece of seating, not exactly the upholstered chair of an executive suite. The box is opened from above and a video film is projected onto the tabletop. In the film, one looks over the shoulder of a person who is separating light and dark grains of rice. In great silence without meticulousness. In sorting, patterns and images emerge that dissolve and dissolve and reform, constantly changing. An endless work process without a described goal. This work continues in the video into infinity, and is an allusion to the fact that in the artist's life work has a constant presence. Even when a work is done, the artistic vision remains open. It never sleeps and creates a permanent shimmer, an everlasting mood of departure. No matter how far the rice has been sorted or not, there is no "done”.  Art is a flowing process that takes shape through an attitude and questions takes shape. Each artwork is a slice of the larger intention.

In the video, the artist relentlessly continues to work with her rice without abandoning her attitude.

In the second part of the installation, again a video, one sees the artist herself, multiplied, sitting on a tribune. She looks like an audience, with unchanging mien to the viewer of the picture and applauds. She applauds, praises herself, alluding to the fact that in her life as an artist she not only continues to work according to positive shouting but motivates herself. Those who depend on external praise is lost - this is how one could interpret this image.

(…)

 

Ele Hermel