Diane Severin Nguyen, Visiting Artist Lecture 2023

Diane Severin Nguyen gives a lecture at Skowhegan exploring her interdisciplinary practice. Nguyen begins her lecture by examining the role of victimhood; how victimhood prevents people from excavating the body of the other, how victimhood is an impetus for transformation, the relationship victimhood has to power, and how moving away from victimhood as a position allows artists to respond from and require new kinds of movements and ideologies in their practice. Nguyen also reflects on her interest in teenagers because of the impressionability she sees in them as well as the conviction that they possess. Nguyen shares with the participants her collaborative work as well, particularly when working on video installations. Working collaboratively has allowed Nguyen the ability to find political consciousness. Nguyen then talks about her interest in photography, particularly with the way she can make an image as sacred as possible and how images can move from something that is profane to something that becomes sacred. Nguyen continues her exploration into photography, stating that it is the medium that in many ways determines who lives and who dies, how photography is about the momentary and the importance of trying to find the moment in which something new emerges, and how photography is also about revealing what’s inside of the image as well as what is revealed outside of the image and how the outside of the image is important to the composition. Nguyen also reflects on the symbol of the star in her work, and how it is something that recurs throughout her practice, whether it represents an authoritarian state, the aspiring pop star which wants to ascend economically, or the star as a five limbed body; the body being reduced to its limbs.