Artist Interview with James Nguyen as part of ‘Open Glossary’

Watch our artist interview with James Nguyen as part of the exhibition James Nguyen: Open Glossary showing at ACCA until 19 November 2023.

James Nguyen: Open Glossary is presented as part of the Copyright Agency Partnerships series of new commissions supporting mid-career and established visual artists to develop and present a major new body of work. With an ongoing commitment to collaborative models of making, James Nguyen has expanded the solo commissioning focus, working with Tamsen Hopkinson (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Pāhauwera), Budi Sudarto, Kate ten Buuren (Taungurung) and Chris Xu on a series of new polyphonic installations presented throughout ACCA’s galleries, as well as an evolving multilingual queer glossary for ACCA’s Digital Wing.

Open Glossary explores the capacity of language to both bind and divide us. Alert to the liveness of lexicons, the exhibition emphasises the ways that words and syntax constantly evolve and transform, marking our connections to others across the specifics of time and place. Conversation is key to Nguyen’s approach, positioning his personal experience and perspective in dialogue with others – family, friends, Vietnamese diasporic and LGBTIQA+ communities, the artworld and its institutions.

Read more about the exhibition here.

This project is presented in partnership with the Copyright Agency as part of the 2023 Copyright Agency Partnerships (CAP) Commission, supporting mid-career and established Australian visual artists to produce a major new commission. The first in the series was TextaQueen’s Bollywouldn’t at the 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art’s Haymarket gallery. Curator: Shelley McSpedden Artists: James Nguyen in collaboration with Tamsen Hopkinson, Budi Sudarto, Kate ten Buuren and Chris Xu Video produced by Gatherer Media