30-DAY PACIFIC OCEAN CROSSING ON A CARGO SHIP & PERFORMANCE OVER THE SEA IN CALIFORNIACAN AN ARTIST CONQUERING THE WORLD? ARTIST UUDAM IS DOING IT.
Support us on our crowdfunding platform: https://igg.me/at/TimeBoomerang-UuDamTranNguyen
► WHY BY A CARGO SHIP?
The last two times, UuDam traveled to Europe and Australia by airplane. This time, by traveling to America on a cargo-boat, UuDam would like to put himself in the shoes of earlier travelers (pre airplane era) to experience the vast time, space they were in. In addition, he wishes to feel the energy that moves huge amount of world commerce in the expansive blue of the Pacific Ocean. Instead of jet-lag, he will probably experience boat-lag when reaching America.
► WHAT WILL YOUR CONTRIBUTION SUPPORT?
The cost of this ambitious Pacific Ocean crossing and performances is above and beyond the UuDam Studio and OCMA budgeted funds. This Indiegogo campaign is the catalyst to rally additional support needed to pay for the UuDam and his assistant 6 weeks journey on a cargo ship and launching the third fingertip into California ocean. By donating to this campaign, you will help fund his and his assistant travel costs & equipment and provide modest housing during the 4-week long ocean travel & 2-week performance in California and airfare back to Việt Nam. Your support will also help provide honorariums for project collaborators, videographer, photographer, hotel and car rental, insurance, accommodations as well as video post-production, etc. The goal is to raise 19,000 USD to cover that cost.Your gift will radically enhance the Time Boomerang exhibition project at OCMA by making it into reality in American continent. UuDam believes that art with a good cause can touch people and make positive changes. TIME BOOMERANG will.Help us spread the word, whether by word of mouth or social networks. Follow us on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/UuDamStudio/ https://www.instagram.com/uudam_tran_nguyen/ https://twitter.com/UuDam
► CONTEXT & STORY FOR TIME BOOMERANG
In 1947, Taiwan & China drew the famous “cow tongue” (as known as the nine-dash line) to claim all the Islands in the South China Sea all the way to Philippine and Indonesia. These islands (atolls) are also claimed by Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia, and Malaysia. This bold overlapping exercise of powers with territorial map on an international scale made UuDam Tran Nguyen rethink the concept of measuring. He finds that exciting when the real distances of things being measured is not necessarily reflected scientifically or lawfully especially when it is influenced by desires, beliefs & national needs. He thinks about what one did when one was a child. One would measure things around them with their outstretched fingers: the first act of almost pure measuring. That’s when he made the first sculpture in the first phase of Time Boomerang. He casted his hand, fingers fully outstretched in his childhood measuring gesture, in metal. When it was completed, he cut out the five fingertips, and moved them away from the hand, symbolically extending his ability to measure (or mark new territories). These five places could be 5 corners of a museum, a university campus, a country, a continent, 5 continents of the Earth, 5 places in a Galaxy, or 5 Galaxies and so on.
►INTRODUCTION TO TIME BOOMERANG, AMERICA PERFORMANCE
Over a period of several years, UuDam will place the 5 fingertips in the oceans of five different continents.Until this moment, UuDam has successfully launched 2 of the 5 bronze fingertips into the waters of Europe and Australia continents as part of Phase #2 . By not limiting himself to the conflict in the South China Sea, the artist wishes to elevate a regional conflict onto a vast time and space where mediated dialogues can take place without impassioned fistfights based on heated patriotism. The Time Boomerang is an on-going project made up of 8 phases. UuDam is pleased to present Phase #1, two parts of Phase #2, Phase #3 and Phase #4 for the first time in Orange County Museum of Art.This August, UuDam Tran Nguyen would like to complete the third part of Phase #2, bring his third bronze fingertip to America. California will be the chosen destination.PHASE #2: The New Conqueror with a Good Passport. Part 3 of 5: America Performance
In July and August 2019, in conjunction with his exhibition currently on view at the Orange County Museum of Art, the acclaimed Vietnamese artist UuDam Tran Nguyen will carry out his historic symbol-laden trip crossing the Pacific Ocean on a cargo ship. After that 30-day voyage, he will reach Los Angeles port. UuDam then will perform the dropping the third bronze fingertip into the California Pacific Ocean. Those two activities will complete Part 3 of Phase #2 of this 8-Phased Time Boomerang project.As the chief critic of OC WEEKLY Dave Barton wrote “Starting with the idea that a child uses his hand to measure things—and the image of a land grab is the perfect childish symbol for an empire—the artist has cast his hand, then cut of the tips of all five fingertips. Those sculpted fingertips will be dropped into bodies of water bordering five of the continents, as a performative way to reclaim territory. It’s essentially a nonsense gesture, but just as with many useless things signifying hope, he persists in doing it anyway.”
The crossing of the Pacific Ocean and the America performance later in California are continuing parts of the US debut of Time Boomerang at the Orange County Museum of Art from April 7, 2019 — Sept 1, 2019. This is a very special occasion to bring the TIME BOOMERANG's third bronze fingertip to the USA shore. Please join us in bringing this timely message of hope to California, a place that has prided itself on independent thinking, demographic diversity and home of the biggest Vietnamese-American community oversea that closely connected to the conflicts in the South China Sea, where this project got inspired from in the first place.
► AN OVERVIEW OF TIME BOOMERANG
TIME BOOMERANG CONSISTS OF 8 PHASES:PHASE #1: The Real Distances of Things Being Measured
PHASE #2: The New Conqueror with a Good Passport, 5 parts
- Part 1: EUROPE (completed)On the 22nd of September 2015, UuDam traveled from Viet Nam to Sweden to launch the first of the five fingertips into the Gulf of Bothnia. The European performance is part of the TIME BOOMERANG Phase #2. During that time, Phase #1 was on display in the Miền Méo Miệng exhibition at Bildmuseet Museum.
- Part 2: AUSTRALIA (completed)On the 29th of November 2015, after two cancellations due to bad weather, the second bronze fingertip was launched into the Moreton Bay in Brisbane, Australia. UuDam was part of the 8th Asia Pacific Triennial while carrying out his second performance of the TIME BOOMERANG Phase #2.
- Part 3: AMERICA Performance (to be performed in August, 2019. This is where your funding is going to support).
- Part 4: AFRICA (to be announced)
- Part 5: ANTARCTICA (to be announced)
PHASE #3: Digital Body Print - commissioned by OCMABy CAT scanning his body and extracting the bone part into digital files with his initial UDN carved all over. UuDam's skeleton could be printed in 3D on demand. This mimics the old practice of many war where one need to find the reason to occupy new territory. Once the bone is ready, the artist can bury them any where he wants to possess.
PHASE #4: Cartography 101: Creating the Next Freaking World Order
Be our guest at the weekly breaking maps performance at OCMA.After "conquering" all five continents with his bronze fingertips, we have the power to turn it up side down and break it up. As the old world orders are destroyed, we can created the next one.
► ABOUT UUDAM TRAN NGUYEN
Phase #2: Australia Performance - picture by Chloë Callistemon
UuDam Tran Nguyen is a Vietnamese-born conceptual artist. He grew up in different parts of Vietnam and the USA. UuDam was trained as a sculptor at the HCM Fine Art University until 1994. He later got his B.A. from UCLA & MFA from the School of Visual Arts. He is now living and working in HCMC.UuDam Tran Nguyen’s artwork reflects his wide interests in many aspects of social issues. He transforms the boundaries between urban myth and popular legend to both celebrate - and warn - of the role and impact of human progress and its desire for social advancement. He is working with video, performance, photography, remote controlled sculpture robotics and new media. Nguyen’s playfully & provocative practice is today one of the prominent voice of Vietnamese contemporary art.
UuDam has been exhibited internationally in the 4th Singapore Biennale, Asia Society Museum, RISD Museum, Kadist Art in San Francisco, the White Chapel gallery, the Jewish Museum NYC, Bildmuseet Museum, Jim Thompson Art Center, the Asia Pacific Triennial (APT8), Art Stage Singapore 2016, at QGOMA, FCAC, the High Line Art, the Aichi Triennale 2016, Yokohama Museum of Art, The NTU CCA residency in Singapore, Goethe Institute in Ha Noi, Singapore Art Museum and SUNSHOWER at the National Art Center in Tokyo in 2017, the show in Esplanade Theater on the Bay & Kuandu Museum of Fine Art (KdMoFA) in Taipei, Shanghai Biennale 2018 in China and the show Serpents' Tails at Galerie Quynh, HCMC, Vietnam.His works have been mentioned and reviewed in Art Forum, Degree Critical, Flash Art, Hyperallergic, Vietnam News, Blouin Art Info, The New York Times, Singapore Today Top Pick, Saigoneer, Los Angeles Times, Phnom Penh Post, Vietnam TV: VTV3 & HTV9, Art Radar Journal, LA weekly, Time Out New York, ArtTribune Italy, etc.He won the Jury Selection prize of the prestigious 18th Japan Media Arts Festival for his robotic app artworks License 2 Draw. UuDam is a co-founder of the experimental art magazine XEM. He is preparing for this Pacific Ocean crossing and America Performance from Ho Chi Minh City.
►ABOUT THE 6 NEW EXHIBITIONS OCMA EXPAND AT ORANGE COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART
For this second season at OCMAEXPAND-SANTA ANA, OCMA will continue the strategy of considering its interim location as a laboratory for artistic experimentation, taking the idea of the Pacific Rim as a research question. “The season of exhibitions by artists Diego Berruecos, York Chang, Victoria Fu and Matt Rich, Fritzia Irízar, UuDam Tran Nguyen, and Hiromi Takizawa continues OCMA's proud history and trajectory as a leader in presenting the freshest art of our time,” says Todd D. Smith, OCMA’s director and CEO. “We look forward to a robust exchange of ideas born out of showing these artists, especially in such a public-facing space.” Located in South Coast Plaza Village, OCMAEXPAND-SANTA ANA is the Museum’s temporary venue while it builds its Thomas Mayne-designed new home at Segerstrom Center for the Arts.
► REWARDSWith his rich body of works, UuDam Studio is pleased to offer these exciting rewards to our invaluable backers:
► OUR PARTNERS
Boat owners:
Depends on our schedule, we could be on either a 36 Tiara boat or the Catamaran sail boat to observe this whole historic performance of Time Boomerang in August. We would like to thank them for their generous support.
Draco Film
Founded in 2015, Draco Film is a Saigon-based production house for films, media productions, commercials and digital assets. Not just an ordinary production house, they create, consult, and bring client's stories to life. Draco Film has partnered with UuDam Studio since 2015 in Project Time Boomerang in Tokyo SunShower, Japan.Draco Film is consider one of the most active and dedicated Production & Post-Production House in HCMC, Vietnam. Their diverse service provide creative videos such as TVCs, Viral Videos, Corporate Videos and Animations for direct clients and advertising agencies. Their team is made up of dynamic filmmakers, designers, animator, dreamers and do. Again, they are looking forward to partnering with UuDam Studio on their next journey to TIME BOOMERANG, "Conquering" America Performance .
XEM Magazine:
From 2013, XEM collective with 5 founding members: Nguyen Thanh Truc, Phan Quang, Hoang Duong Cam, Quang Lam and Nguyen Tran UuDam. XEM Magazine has been featuring artists in Vietnam community and abroad on their magazine platform. It is an experimental and photographic platform. Their support of the mission will result in the form of a special XEM Magazine edition to spread the news about this event on Social Media and XEM Facebook page.
► ADDITIONAL SPECIAL REWARDS
*For collectors who would like to invest and own part of or all of this ambitious 8-phased TIME BOOMERANG project at this early stage, this is a great moment to do so. You will enjoy a special early bird investor rate. Items include videos, sculpture and all the items above and more below. Great rewards for Collectors who wish to support our 30 days trip across the Pacific Ocean and "Conquering" America performance. Please view Special Collectors' Items below.
Feel free to contact us at UuDam Studio's Facebook or artist UuDam Tran Nguyen for any further information on the works above.Thank you for your interest and support for TIME BOOMERANG - America Performance project!LET'S BE PART OF HISTORY!
UUDAM STUDIO THANK YOU!