COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Feb. 13, 2024) — The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College is pleased to announce our upcoming exhibition “Hương Ngô: Ungrafting,” opening in the museum’s El Pomar Galleries on March 1, 2024.
Time is crucial to Hương Ngô, who investigates the resonances of colonial histories in the present day. She explores various aspects of Vietnamese resistance to French colonialism through archival research and activates the historical record via imagery, language, and material matter. “The fate of our planet and biodiversity is on everyone’s minds, but how can we understand our future without examining the beliefs and actions that have transformed our world?” said Hương Ngô.
Ngô’s first solo exhibition in Colorado displays early 20th-century photographs of foreign trees and tree grafts planted in Indochina by the French. The artist uses grafting as a metaphor for colonialism’s physical violence. Ngô reproduces the archival photographs using the Van Dyke method, altering the fixing process to make the images gradually deteriorate and darken.
Ngô’s work includes photographs of altered plant reproductions and hanging fabric works with visible sutures treated with iron, copper, and soil from Colorado, and other materials found in the US Southwest, creating a connection between two distinct geographies. The tears in the works are a reminder of the violence of land control, but the mends represent resistance and repair.
“Hương Ngô reveals that plants hold histories and tell stories. Her installation at the Fine Art Center engages the legacy of tree grafting to make a connection between colonization and ecology,” said Curator of Contemporary Art Katja Rivera. “Visitors will experience Ngô’s thoughtful attention to material, which she uses to explore how the past continues to make and remake the present.”
To elaborate on the concept, the artist plans to showcase a range of works and cultural heritage pieces from our Fine Arts Center’s permanent collection. These items will further highlight the history of the region and its cultural intersections. Together, the exhibited works aim to convey the idea of “ungrafting”, which is a poetic decolonial approach that intertwines networks of care over time.
“Hương Ngô: Ungrafting” is curated by Katja Rivera, Curator of Contemporary Art, in collaboration with the artist. Support for the exhibition is generously provided by The Anschutz Foundation and Colorado Creative Industries.
RELATED EVENTS
A Conversation with Hương Ngô, Chadwick Allen, Aline Lo, and Justin Quang Ngyuen Phan
Friday, March 1, 5:30-7 p.m.
As part of the FAC’s First Friday, please help us celebrate the opening of “Ungrafting,” Hương Ngô’s first solo exhibition in Colorado. Guests will be invited to engage in an informal conversation to discuss the exhibition and its connection to topics such as intergenerational knowledge transmission, the importance of land in anti-colonial movements, and the role of the archive in artistic production. Joining the artist are Chadwick Allen, Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement and Russell F. Stark University Professor at the University of Washington; Aline Lo, Assistant Professor at Colorado College; and Justin Phan, Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. This event is free and open to the public; RSVPs are requested.
Please stay tuned for more upcoming events in relation to “Hương Ngô: Ungrafting.”
ABOUT THE FINE ARTS CENTER MUSEUM
The FAC Museum’s permanent collection of approx. 17,000 objects showcases the rich history and vibrant contemporary cultures of the Southwest and the Americas, containing works of art from Native America, Hispanic and Spanish Colonial New Mexico, and 20th and 21st-century America.
Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College
The story of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College (FAC) began with the founding of the Broadmoor Art Academy in 1919. A museum, performing arts theatre, and community art school, the FAC is a pillar in the cultural community of the Rocky Mountain West providing innovative, educational, and multi-disciplinary arts experiences designed to elevate the individual spirit and inspire community vitality. For more information about the FAC, visit fac.coloradocollege.edu or follow on Facebook @CSFineArtsCenter.
Land Acknowledgement
Colorado College occupies the traditional territories of the Nuchu, known today as the Southern Ute Tribe, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, and the Northern Ute People, who lost their beloved homelands due to colonization, forced relocation, and land theft. Other tribes have also lived here including the Apache, Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Comanche — and notably, continue to do so, along with many other Indigenous Peoples. To actively seek social justice, we acknowledge that the land continues to hold the values and traditions of the original inhabitants and caretakers of this land. We pay honor and respect to their ancestors, elders, and youth — past, present, and future.
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