QUANG HAI NGUYEN
Dear Mom
2020
Photography and photographic archives, 16" X 20" & 4" X 5"
Artist statement
Dear Mom is an auto-documentary series that illustrates the emotional and cultural distances between second-generation children and their immigrant parents. Through the exploration of my own house and found archived images, this series reveals the history behind my mom’s immigration, what it is like to be far away from “home’’ and finally, the story about a kid that only wants to be close to his mom again.
Artist’s biography
Quang Hai Nguyen is a Montreal-based photographer who is primarily interested in documentary photography. Through contemplation of the world and people that surround him, photography allows him to use the camera as a tool of introspection, a mirror that reflects not only what he sees through the lens, but also his internal feelings. Therefore, the world becomes his canvas for personal self-narration.
Photo by Guy L’Heureux
Essay
Looking Back to Look Forward
Author Meghan Leech
Artist Quang Hai Nguyen
Artwork Dear Mom, 2020
Montreal-based photographer Quang Hai Nguyen often uses his craft as a tool to learn about himself. In his Dear Mom series, he brings us on a vulnerable journey by looking at his home and family life. The series includes a portrait he recently took of his mother, as well as archival photographs taken when she first immigrated to Canada from Vietnam. His mother’s portrait, which has a grainy quality and richer colors, is juxtaposed with older photographs. They contrast not only because of the time when they were taken, but also because the portrait seems impersonal or disconnected when placed next to the archival images. The visual tension here highlights the cultural dissonance that can exist between Nguyen’s parent and himself as a first-generation child. This dissonance creates additional hurdles in their personal relationship. The works also ponder on the passage of time and the consequences that come with it, particularly, the emotional distance between mother and child. Dear Mom points to how one can take the parent-child relationship for granted and forget it can be the most difficult to navigate at times.
In his artist statement, Nguyen aptly expresses his feelings regarding the relationship with his mother, arguing that “[the] notion of ‘family’ doesn’t have its meaning anymore when we realize that the person that has been the closest to you in your life can also be the person you know the least.”1 Their distance results largely from the differences in language between generations. When his mother first arrived in Canada, she wrote a book of phrases to navigate the airport. Now, though she is fluent enough in English to get by at work, she prefers to speak Vietnamese at home. On the other hand, Nguyen was born in Montreal and speaks French and English, but very little Vietnamese. Consequently, communication barriers have led to the growing distance. The generational gap can be enough to cause tension; different languages and culture amplify that tension. Although they live together, the two define home and belonging differently. The artist thinks of Canada as his home and the only one he has ever known, while his mother often feels homesick, still adapting to her new country.
Photo by Guy L’Heureux
For him, at its core the series is about ‘a kid that only wants to be close to his mom again.’
The project also considers the passing of time, and how time can be taken for granted. The busy nature of our lives can prevent us from being present, leaving us retrospectively appreciating past events or coping with the anxieties around losing time. Nguyen hoped by learning about his mother and sympathising with her immigration struggles, he would feel less estranged from her and the time that created their distance. For him, at its core the series is about “a kid that only wants to be close to his mom again.”2 It is why the portrait of his mother, the first one he has ever taken, shows her as the woman he has come to see. He captures with tenderness the hands of a hard-working mother that helped to bring a family to a new country. While the portrait may give the viewer a detached first impression, it would be more accurate to view it as a moment of new-found intimacy. By extending some sympathy to the woman she had been, Nguyen seeks to feel closer to the woman she is now.
- “Dear Mom,” Quang Hai Nguyen, accessed September 24, 2021.
- Ibid.
Author’s biography
Meghan Leech (she/her) is a Montreal-based writer who is entering her third year at Concordia in Art History with a minor in Philosophy. She is interested in multi-media or digital pieces, particularly the ones that explore different intersectionalities. Recently, her personal research has focused on the gallery space as a space where colonial ideas are created and methods of unmaking. She will also be taking on the role as Managing Editor for the Concordia Undergraduate Journal of Art History (CUJHA). In her free time, she enjoys her own art practices and reading things that stir the imagination.
