a runaway kite, Angenie Nguyen, 2020
Everything around me is imbued with a sense of familiarity that almost feels inherent, but every now and then at the strangest moments, the seemingly mundane becomes unknown. In coming to realize that the world itself is neutral and these feelings are relative, I felt disoriented yet intrigued as to how they came to be.
This curiosity led me to revisit places of memory and document the discrepancies between then and now, to form a body of work that echoes the familiar, yet exists only in the world I create. The place in question is a wheat field—one of many, that I had passed before. Accompanied by new friends, the visit was filled with anticipation and upon arriving, I was amazed by the vastness of this space that seemed all but memorable. But as I took a closer look, the sea of yellow quickly formed the long-familiar, tall stocks of my childhood and it’s this discovery of the unfamiliar in the mundane, that continues to influence and drive my work.