kyduyen.ngo@gmail.com / +84 93 234 1782 / https://staying-cool.com/
Jo or Ngô Kỳ Duyên is a Saigonese multi-disciplinary artist whose work is associated with moving images, virtual reality, augmented reality, new media art and recently sound art. She aims to reach more audiences in a stronger and more appealing narrative form with high-tech support and advocate for the creative community to go beyond the traditional mediums. Her main focus is healing art, meditation, and spreading positive energy for a safe mental outlet which is even more crucial than ever after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jo, ou Ngô Kỳ Duyên, est une artiste pluridisciplinaire originaire de Saigon, dont le travail est associé aux images en mouvement, à la réalité virtuelle, à la réalité augmentée, à l'art des nouveaux médias et récemment à l'art sonore. Elle vise à toucher un public plus large dans une forme narrative plus forte et plus attrayante, avec le soutien de technologies de pointe, et à plaider en faveur de la communauté créative pour aller au-delà des médiums traditionnels. Son principal objectif est l'art de guérison, la méditation et la diffusion d'une énergie positive pour une évasion mentale sécurisée, ce qui est encore plus crucial après la pandémie de COVID-19.
Exhibition/ Performance - Exposition/Performance :
2024 March, Ici Saigon solo exhibit, Made in Asia festival, L’ENAC, Toulouse, France
2023 November, Haioku artist in residence, gentle mental, audiovisual installation, Kobe, Japan
2023 September, Make us Visible, AR monument, Emma Giesen, Worms, Germany
2023 September, Le voyage suspendu, Ici Saigon, 3d animation, Paris, France
2023 September, Men like Earth, visual projection, Kaseseler museums nacht, Kassel, Germany
2023 August, Mermaid Dance, Perform Festival, audiovisual performance, Medoc, France
2023 April, Lit, interactive audio-visual installation, Ant studio, Saigon
2023 March, FantaSee, interactive audio-visual installation, De La Sol, Saigon
2023 January, Art Singapore Film, 5: 45 pm, SG Art Film, Art Science Museum, Singapore
2022 November, MAP residence, Waiting room exhibit, Nostalogic, audiovisual installation, Hanoi, Vietnam
2022 October, #MakeUsVisible x denkFemale 2022, AR monument, Munich, Germany
2022 January, Stool Odyssey The Beginning, Art Fair Saigon, Park Hyatt, Saigon
2022 January, Stool Odyssey 4.5, Dream of Foreign Land, Mo art, Hanoi
2021, Athens Digital Art Festival, 5 :45 pm, 3D animation
2021 October, Digital Art Month NYC, Banhmi.exe, Augmented Reality
2021 June, Digital Art Month Paris, Saigon oi, Augmented Reality
2021 February, Tonight the air is warm group exhibition featuring video art Where do the fishes go, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London
2021 February, Vancouver Mural Festival Winter Arts, AR artist, Vancouver downtown, Canada
2020 November, Men like Earth, audio visual set, Creative Code Art festival, Lightbox, NYC
2020 November, The You performance, The Goethe-Institut Hanoi, Hanoi, Vietnam
2020 October, The You performance, the Vocational Ballet School, Saigon, Vietnam
2020 July, xanh nước cây aquatic greenery, solo exhibition, Á experimental space nghệ thuật thử nghiệm, Hanoi, Vietnam
2020 January, You can talk to me, group exhibition, Exhibition Center, Hanoi, Vietnam
2019 December, You can talk to me, group exhibition, Tipsy Art, Saigon, Vietnam
2019 September, 1723, collaboration with painter Lan Anh, VR/AR + Painting Exhibition, Salon Saigon, Vietnam
Art residency/ Résidence artistique:
2020 July, Á space experimental, Hanoi, Vietnam ending with xanh nước cây aquatic greenery, solo exhibition
2021 April to July, remotely Facebook Open Arts residency
2021 September to November, Athome/Beinghome virtual residency by ASEF
2022 November, Month of Arts, Heritage Space, Hanoi, Vietnam ending with Waiting room exhibit
2023 August, Perform Festival, Medoc, France
2023 November, Haioku artist in residence, Baison Gallery, Kobe, Japan
2024 March, Made in Asia Festival, Toulouse, France
AR:
Emma Giesen #MakeUsVisible x Worms 2023, Worms, Germany
Emma Giesen (1895 - 1982) defied societal norms of her time by pursuing a career in photography instead of traditional domestic work. As a single mother and working woman in the 1920s and 30s, she faced challenges, yet established herself in the male-dominated field through her innovative portrait photography. Her AR sculpture, "Spirit Catcher" by Chòm hõm, represents Giesen's legacy of capturing memories and lives through her photography career.
Chòm hõm, founded by artists Jo and Chaulichi, is a platform in Saigon dedicated to fostering experimental immersive experiences through new media art forms like AR, VR, Code Art, visual projection, and 3D animation. They prioritize supporting and empowering LGBTQ+, non-binary, and female artists by cultivating an inclusive workspace and community.
Ada Lovelace The thinker #MakeUsVisible x denkFEmale 2022, Munich, Germany
Ada Lovelace is an awe-spiring pioneer in technology and mathematics with her publication of the first algorithm intended to be carried out by a computer. With this AR, I would love to raise more awareness of women in those fields which have been long dominated by men. Hopefully, it can inspire and motivate more female fellows to get involved.
MakeUsVisible seeks to address the underrepresentation of diverse figures in public art, challenging the dominance of male-centric monuments and advocating for inclusivity and visibility of women, nonbinary individuals, and people of color. The initiative aims to reshape the narrative by highlighting the absence of representation for women, nonmale figures, and diverse professionals, prompting a crucial conversation about equitable recognition in public spaces.
“Saigon oi” - AR filter on Instagram and Facebook featured on Digital Art Month Paris, June 2021
Welcome to Saigon where locals mingle with red stools on the pavement and enjoy street food. The filter is a funky experience of the daily Vietnam scene with the soundscape of street cries, motor engine and bird chirping.
“Inside out” - AR filter on Instagram and Facebook for Vancouver Mural Festival Winter Arts in Feb 2021. The experience allows the audiences to explore the photosphere in the form of Coronavirus but full of colorful bio-art and magical lighting contracting to the depressing pandemic.
Why I didn’t report during You can talk to me group exhibition encourages the victim of sexual harassment to speak up for themselves by showing some reasons with the AR app on the tablet and the audiences are welcomed to write down on the empty board.
The portraits of the victims on the surface and deeply inside. It can happen to men, women, LGBT people, basically everyone.
During the 1723 exhibition (click on the link for AR demonstration), AR on Lananh’s paintings. To raise active engagement for traditional medium and experiment the new media, we create animation of painting figures and allow the audiences to experience the vivid life of fictional characters made by the painter.
VR
Seek and Hide, Meta Open Arts residency
The VR experience during 1723 show and short film Walking on a dream , 7 minutes
The audiences can experience the virtual surreal world with digital paintings with a VR headset.
VR 360 short film “A Better Day” is a collective of many confidants’ thoughts and feelings toward sexual harassment happened to friends and family , 6 minutes, for You can talk to me exhibition
3D Animation:
Why 5: 45 pm? Since there were 15 minutes left before the restricted hours during COVID quarantine to decide whether to stay home or go out for some fresh air. It’s such a short time that risk is guaranteed but long enough to make a move. While composing the track, I found myself floating in a thin fog with a nice breeze during the melancholy yet gorgeous sunset. The regret that another day had just passed and I might have missed something. With those sentiments, I created the scene and pretty content to capture the visual from my imagination.
Featured in Art Singaporean film, Art Science Museum, Singapore in January 2023 and Athens Digital Art Festival 2021
Where do the fishes go? 3 minutes
The fishes are the metaphor for the people in the city during the shutdown due to coronavirus.
I made the video in April 2020 when Ho Chi Minh City was in lockdown. This video transports viewers into a hallucinogenic vision of fish and whales swimming through scenes of a city emptied of human interaction. Accompanied by an otherworldly soundtrack, the video has a calming and poetic quality, but at the same time it is impossible to ignore environmental connotations of the natural world reclaiming man-made, urban spaces.
This is part of the group exhibition ‘Tonight the Air is Warm’, curated by Tolla Duke Sloane, which brings together works by some of the leading Southeast Asian artists working within today’s contemporary art scene, Opening at London Bridge Gallery on Thursday the 25th of February 2021
Ici Vietnam, 3D animation, Le voyage suspendu, Vinfast Paris, France
« Ici Saïgon ! » est une exposition de Jo Ngô, jeune artiste vietnamienne qui travaille l’art numérique, la performance, et le son. Elle s’inspire d’une observation minutieuse de sa ville natale, Saïgon, et offre une perspective unique sur le contexte social vietnamien et la vie en ville, bousculés par le boom économique. Ses créations, hommages aux rues animées de Saïgon, forment des paysages digitaux oniriques qui transcendent le quotidien pour devenir des oeuvres immersives et parfois interactives. Derrière chaque détail de la composition, un objet détourné, sublimé, archivé, qui dévoile une histoire, qui reflète l’espoir et l’optimisme, la résilience et la créativité des habitants de Saïgon.
“Here, Saigon!” is an exhibition by Jo Ngô, a young Vietnamese artist who works with digital art, performance, and sound. She draws inspiration from a meticulous observation of her hometown, Saigon, offering a unique perspective on Vietnamese social context and urban life, shaken by the economic boom. Her creations, tributes to the bustling streets of Saigon, form dreamlike digital landscapes that transcend the everyday to become immersive and sometimes interactive works. Behind every detail of the composition lies a repurposed, sublimated, archived object that unveils a story, reflecting the hope and optimism, resilience, and creativity of Saigon’s inhabitants.
Solo exhibit, L’ENAC, Toulouse, France
Native landscape with coconut and water coconut trees before civilization
Jo's contemplative works, such as "Ici Saigon" (a black-and-white landscape with numerous floating objects), serve as a collection, an herbarium, or a personal diary in which Jo archives and digitizes everyday objects that are disappearing from Saigon's urban landscape. These objects include concrete-encased fans, construction tarps, concrete orange markers, stools, and tables, as well as natural elements like bamboo, banana trees, and water coconut trees. Through these artworks, Jo captures the essence of urban transformation and preservation, reflecting on the evolving urban environment and the ephemeral nature of everyday life in Saigon.
Jo's recent move to the suburbs of Saigon has brought her closer to nature, allowing her to enjoy a larger garden and a more natural environment than city living. This theme is currently a focal point of her exploration.
Human presence is absent from Jo's work, but it's subtly suggested through objects like stools, which narrate a way of life. In her art, various types of makeshift dwellings typical of the Vietnamese countryside can be observed. Many people live in these types of homes near the river and are neighbors of Jo. However, despite their decades-long presence in the area, they do not own the land. Urban development and real estate speculation threaten to displace them and destroy their way of life.
"Spirituality" explores the concept of unseen forces and spirits of nature, often depicted through unidentified lines and colorful forms. This reflects a Southeast Asian mindset that acknowledges the spirits of plants and intertwines them with gods, forming a connection between the visible and invisible realms. These representations symbolize a fusion of different dimensions coexisting and are materialized by the artist, Jo.
For instance, in the latest print, the filaments represent dragons, mythical creatures from Asian imagination.
A small hut on stilts housing toilets over the river represents one of the most hygienic ways to live along riverbanks while coexisting harmoniously with nature. This setup allows waste to flow directly into the river, which, in turn, nourishes the fish population. It's a sustainable solution that minimizes pollution while maximizing the natural ecosystem's benefits.
The artwork "City Grave" portrays a scale model of a modern city placed on a green ground, symbolizing nature being overshadowed by urbanization. The artist has draped a colorful cloth over it, resembling a coffin, signifying the burial of nature beneath the city. On top of the cloth are gardening tools as a tribute to agriculture and rural life.
Solo exhibit, Ici Saigon, L’ENAC, Toulouse, France, March April 2024.
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Men like Earth
"Men like Earth" is an immersive electronic art therapy project that delves into the profound parallels between human existence and the natural world. Through multimedia installations, interactive experiences, and therapeutic sessions, it explores themes of interconnectedness, healing, and introspection. Participants are invited to engage with immersive audiovisual experiences that evoke the rhythms and patterns found in nature, providing a therapeutic space for emotional exploration and connection with the larger ecosystem.
The development by time with exhibitions and performances
Installation, visual projection
Aquatic greenery, solo exhibition, aims to create a safe place for emotional outlet at A space experimental art, Hanoi, Vietnam.
We are all subject to mental strain in our lives, and periods of instability are only natural. However we often lack the means to fully assess any lasting damage, and we struggle to receive the support we need to address our issues and heal from them. And so, to help us recenter ourselves and find our own equilibria, we come to this verdant glade of tranquility and repose, where our souls may take their ease, and our spirits may ride the currents of positivity, healing energy that flow around us. May the silence, living foliage, the soundscapes, the moving images, and the sessions of subtle healing, help sooth our minds and bring them to a place of equanimity.
Performance:
The You, a performance to raise awareness about mental health, conducted by Ian Richter, Đoàn Thanh Toàn and Jo. The You is a performance experiment conducted by Ian Richter, Jo or Ngô Kỳ Duyên and Đoàn Thanh Toàn. As artist researchers our shared interests are weaved together in a balance between control and accident. The experience is composed of visual projections, live music and physical performance crafted using the codes of a scientific experiment and influenced by methods of creative therapy.
Se sẻ sè se, performance about the conflict inside every of us, the one wants to take risk and explore the world, the other prefers comfort zone and settle down.
"U-topia" is an experimental audiovisual performance that doubles as electronic art therapy. Through a captivating fusion of sound, visuals, and contemporary movement, it offers participants a transformative journey into the realms of self-discovery and emotional healing. By immersing audiences in an evocative multisensory experience, "U-topia" serves as a safe space for introspection, exploration, and catharsis, providing a unique avenue for individuals to engage with their innermost thoughts and feelings.
Mermaid Dance, Perform Festival, Medoc, France, August 2023
From the deep thirst for salvation, I have been constantly seeking tranquility in my practice from the very first days. The more I search, the more I realize the true balance is just always there from the inside since each of us is already a magnificent universe. An intimate conversation with our inner selves would allow that spiritual journey to begin. Gathering from that mental pool for a while, I came up with some visual patterns and meditative soundscapes that convey the immersive reflection I would to lure the audiences inside. As how all East Asian philosophy of zen processing in just one word “quên” (forget) and “quen” (know, get familliar) with in Vietnamese, the thin line between living and existing is just like that. Just natural as how we breathe.
