Artist Spotlight: Linh Nguyen
TVR’s art editor Angelina Chung interviews student artist Linh Nguyen about her experiences as a creative and the series on parallelism she shot this September depicted below.
To begin, can you tell me a little bit about yourself? Your background, major, what you’ve been up to?
L: I am a senior, doing a bunch of job interviews, and I’ve heard this question so many times. But my name is Linh Nguyen. My hometown is Vietnam. I’m majoring in HOD and Communications studies.
How do you build in time to create?
L: I create stuff during free blocks in my day—in the free afternoons without any job interviews, classes or clubs—I go around with a camera and take photos as a hobby.
When did you start creating?
L: In high school, I took IB film for two years.
*For the specific series on parallelism, she started creating in September.
Why did you choose photography?
L: It’s amazing how you can freeze the motion around you and be able to capture the moment and bring attention to it. Also, different angles bring out different perspectives that we barely notice.
Speaking of photography, we have here your photography series on the theme of parallelism. What is parallelism? (What does it mean in your works?) – How did you take interest in this theme? What about the theme of parallelism interests you?
L: My friend recently passed away, and I believe they would be living in a world parallel to us. There’s an Asian myth that people who passed away would continue to live parallelly next to us. So I portray the parallelism in our world to remember them.
This series seems to portray scenes from the Vanderbilt campus. Am I right? Is there a reason why you chose to do a series focusing on our campus?
The whole series is made up of different things on campus. They are so simple that they can be in the parallel world next to us. They are simple, ordinary objects on campus – so simple that we pass through everyday – but they are beautiful when you look at them more closely, and the aesthetic of how they are placed together on campus is mesmerizing.
What does photography do for you?
L: It gives me an “ease of mind”- feeling peaceful and calm and sensing that everything is constantly moving, but feeling like I am observing still from a distance.
Is there anything you want to promote? Or something you feel the need to include in this interview?
L: The message I try to convey is: never underestimate the ordinary stuff around us – every single thing around us has its own values and beauty regardless of its size.