Intermissions: Bao Nguyen

Intermissions is back with artist and performer Bao Nguyen!

“The Ocean Has the Final Say” by Bao Nguyen
Referencing the geopolitical dispute of the South China Sea between different neighboring Southeast Asian nations, “The Ocean Has the Final Say” is an online performance lecture that collages source materials such as videos, websites, and texts relating to this conflict. Through movement, audience interaction, and chroma-keying technology, Bao Nguyen proposes whale echolocation as a strategy to imagine other ways of relating to the ocean beyond strict conception of borders that leads to further ecological exploitation.

Video documentation of live performance on Zoom. Color, sound. Excerpt run time: 20 minutes 27 seconds. Total run time: 47 minutes 8 seconds. 2020. Documentation courtesy of Lauren Schooley.

About Intermissions
Bringing local and international artists to Creative Alliance through the mediums of video art, narrative and documentary film, and digital art. The short film and digital art program Intermissions is an exploration of the moving image in all its forms in between exhibition presentations at Creative Alliance. The films or video artworks are presented in Creative Alliance’s Main Gallery on the first floor. All presentations are 30 minutes or less.

Artist Biography
Bao Nguyen is an experimental vocalist and performance artist born in Vietnam and based in Baltimore. Through performance, sound, video and interactive media, Bao’s practice examines oral traditions to reconsider the history of Vietnamese nation-building and devise new connections between ourselves and the landscape. Bao completed their BFA at Maryland Institute College of Art and is pursuing their MFA at University of Maryland, Baltimore County. They have exhibited in Chicago, Baltimore and Korea. In 2022, they were awarded the Judson-Morrissey Excellence in New Media Award from the New Media Caucus. Bao recently completed their residency at Yale Norfolk Summer School of Art.