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Contemporary Art Gallery

555 Nelson Street
Vancouver, Canada
Open from Tuesday to
Sunday 12 pm → 6 pm

Admission always free
ArchiveExhibition
2 Feb 24until5 May 24

Diane Severin Nguyen

If I hadn’t created my own world, I would have died in someone else’s

B.C. Binning Gallery

Diane Severin Nguyen, In Her Time (still), 2023. Courtesy of the artist.

Across her moving image work, Diane Severin Nguyen depicts characters driven to express the enigmatic truths of their existence. Faced with the stultifying effects of historical trauma and the ungraspable nature of intergenerational memory, Nguyen’s works explore her protagonists’ struggle to realize their agency in the present.

At the Contemporary Art Gallery, Nguyen presents In Her Time (Iris’ Version), a new edit of her 2023 feature-length film In Her Time. Set amid the outsized period sets of Hengdian World Studios, the largest film studio in Asia, the film follows Iris, a young actress searching for her voice as she prepares for the leading role in a Chinese historical epic. Couched in the conceit of a “making of” special, In Her Time depicts Iris behind the scenes, rehearsing lines and describing the artistic process of coming to inhabit her character. Throughout, she deliberates over the demand the film places upon her to master performing pain and victimization. Iris’ Version introduces new content shot from Iris’ iPhone camera, intercutting the “official” footage with reflections on the filmmaking process from the actress’ perspective.

In Her Time was commissioned and produced by the Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, with support from the Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver.

Iris’ Version is 67 minutes and begins at the following times each day: 12:00, 1:10, 2:20, 3:30, 4:40

Biography

Diane Severin Nguyen works with photography, video and installation. Through material and sculptural experimentations, Nguyen approaches the photographic moment as one of transformation. The artist is particularly interested in exceeding photography as a mode of documentation, and engages with it rather as a set of conditions shaped by desire and speculation. Her video work narrativizes these tensions by examining the histories of power, victimhood and forms of propaganda that underpin cultural (and self) image-making. She has exhibited her work internationally, in places like SculptureCenter, The Renaissance Society, Rockbund Art Museum, MoMA PS1, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Schinkel Pavilion, Jeu du Paume, the Hammer Museum, and many others. Her films have been screened at film festivals such as the New York Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam and Berlinale. Nguyen is a recent recipient of the 2023 Guggenheim fellowship and lives and works in New York.

Diagonal view of four benches facing a large screen with pink and red ribbons surrounding a perimeter. Onscreen, several bodies lay in a darkened room surrounded by bubbles and ribbons.
Diagonal view of four benches facing a large screen with pink and red ribbons forming a curtain around the perimeter. Onscreen, a child sits on a bed in a dark room, clutching a pink object and looking out a window.
View of a large screen seen through a wall of pink and ribbon ribbons. Onscreen, a woman lies on a bed with arms crossed gazing into the eyes of a stuffed yellow bear wearing a red ascot.
Two rows of benches face a screen in a room with pink and red ribbons walls. Onscreen, red liquid drips down the palm of a paper cut-out propaganda-style image of a young girl saluting.
Two rows of benches face a screen in a room with pink and red ribbons walls. Onscreen, an image of a woman blowdrying her hair is overlain on a collage made of movie paraphernalia.
Two rows of benches face a screen in a room with pink and red ribbons walls. Onscreen, a woman surrounded by smiling soldiers clutches her chest while confetti falls on her.
Two rows of benches face a screen in a room with pink and red ribbons walls. Onscreen, a woman faces the viewer with the text caption If I hadn’t created my own world at the bottom of the screen.

Acknowledgements

Diane Severin Nguyen: If I hadn’t created my own world, I would have died in someone else’s is supported by the Province of B.C. and presented with additional support from Clark’s Audio Visual.

This exhibition is part of the 2024 Capture Photography Festival Featured Exhibition Program.

Documents

Large print exhibition materialpdf254kbExhibition materialpdf268kb

Talks & Events

EventOpening ReceptionWinter 2024
1 Feb 24·7:00 PMuntil9:00 PM
EventCuratorial Tourwith Godfre Leung
13 Feb 24·6:00 PM
EventSaturday SessionCasey Wei on Diane Severin Nguyen
24 Feb 24·12:00 PM
EventCuratorial Tourwith Matthew Hyland
5 Mar 24·6:00 PM
EventCuratorial Tourwith Matthew Hyland
2 Apr 24·6:00 PM
Photo: Mila ZuoEventSaturday SessionMila Zuo on Diane Severin Nguyen
13 Apr 24·12:00 PM
Event · OffsiteIn ConversationDiane Severin Nguyen & X Zhu-Nowell
23 Apr 24·7:00 PM
Diagonal view of four benches facing a large screen with pink and red ribbons surrounding a perimeter. Onscreen, several bodies lay in a darkened room surrounded by bubbles and ribbons.
Diagonal view of four benches facing a large screen with pink and red ribbons forming a curtain around the perimeter. Onscreen, a child sits on a bed in a dark room, clutching a pink object and looking out a window.
View of a large screen seen through a wall of pink and ribbon ribbons. Onscreen, a woman lies on a bed with arms crossed gazing into the eyes of a stuffed yellow bear wearing a red ascot.
Two rows of benches face a screen in a room with pink and red ribbons walls. Onscreen, red liquid drips down the palm of a paper cut-out propaganda-style image of a young girl saluting.
Two rows of benches face a screen in a room with pink and red ribbons walls. Onscreen, an image of a woman blowdrying her hair is overlain on a collage made of movie paraphernalia.
Two rows of benches face a screen in a room with pink and red ribbons walls. Onscreen, a woman surrounded by smiling soldiers clutches her chest while confetti falls on her.
Two rows of benches face a screen in a room with pink and red ribbons walls. Onscreen, a woman faces the viewer with the text caption If I hadn’t created my own world at the bottom of the screen.