Tammy Nguyen

Letterpress, woodblock, silkscreen, collage, pencil, ink, paper, MDF, and silk
18" x 24" x 1" (open and closed)
2015

Dana Ng in
Danang City

by Tammy Nguyen

1: THE RED-SHANKED DOUC LANGUR

The red-shanked douc langur is an endangered species of primate that lives on Son Tra Mountain in Danang City. There are only a few hundred of these primates left, but they have been in Vietnam forever through the thousand years of Chinese domination, through colonization by the French and Dutch, and through all the battles between America and the Vietnamese Communists.

Monkey Mountain is a jungle, but the langurs are easy to find. Look for them in the early morning, or in the late afternoon. Drive a motor bike up the mountain from either the tourist entrance on the south side of the mountain, or the military entrance on the north side. Both entrances lead to a curvy road, with no turns. There is no wrong way up, but when you start to see the trees get dense, turn off your bike, and walk it. Quietly, lightly, scratch your shoulder. They will respond to your scuffing noise. You’ll first hear something like the sound of rain, but it’s the sound of the langurs romping through the leaves of the canopy. Look high up, and you’ll see them.

Their arms and shins are orange-red, the hue of bricks. Their bodies are silvery grey, like slate chalkboards, with white streaks along their forearms and calves. Their beards are the same warm white. Their faces are blushed with the orange-red of an unripe persimmon. Their eyes are completely black, the blackest you have ever seen, the black of outer-space. Their eyes are glazed wet, like shiny tapioca pearls.

The red-shanked douc langurs live in clans: one dominant male, several females, and their communal offspring. Every day, for breakfast and again for dinner, the clan moves among the same group of trees. They pause on the branches of the figs and chestnuts to chew the leaves. They all sleep next to each other, in the center of their trees.

The red-shanked douc langurs walk in the trees. They balance on branches, and skip from bough to bough. Tree canopies are their ground. They don’t know what it’s like to touch the earth.

For years, Monkey Mountain was a safe place for the langurs. During the Vietnam War, the mountain was a US military base. The roads were restricted and too narrow for civilians to pass through. To the people of Danang City, Monkey Mountain was a view, a landscape.

But in 1997, the Vietnamese government opened Monkey Mountain for ecotourism. The Vietnamese-Ukrainian-owned Intercontinental Hotel won the bid to develop a resort on the lush slope facing Danang Bay. Today, Intercontinental Danang is the most beautiful and luxurious resort in Vietnam.

If you are lucky enough to visit or stay at the Intercontinental Danang, you will probably have to take a chauffeured car from the city. There is no obvious parking for visitors on motorbikes. Ancient dragons and present-day monkeys are carved in marble at the entrance like on an opulent altar-place.

One road leads to the Intercontinental Danang, accessible only from the other side of the Han River. It winds along the beach and through the overwhelming lushness of Son Tra Mountain. The road is paved smooth, modern, and wide.

But this road was too wide, too wide by two meters.

The red-shanked douc langurs have no cognitive grasp of the earth. They only walk on the canopies of the trees. The trees’ long branches extend into multiple pathways, but the branches can only reach so far from the roots. The trees have no cognitive grasp of how to grow from asphalt. The roads were too wide by two meters and the branches could not reach across.

When the road was built, it split up families of red-shanked douc langur. Despite being only a few meters apart, these families could never be connected again. The red-shanked douc langur has no comprehension of the earth, so the primates on one side of the too-wide road don’t know why they can see but not touch their parents on the other side.

They eat the same meals in the same places and see their parents on the other side. And they cannot touch them.

2. THE TOP OF SON TRA MOUNTAIN

Another name for Son Tra Mountain is Tien Sha Mountain, which translates to “Fairies’ Landing Mountain”. Ancient Chinese legend claims that fairies fly to the top of Tien Sha Mountain to play chess.

The mountain is so grand that outward from its peak you can see tiny islands in the South China Sea. You could imagine yourself jumping onto a cloud running express to the heavens.

The top of Tien Sha Mountain is a plateau as level as a chessboard. It is an inaccessible place where the fairies meet to contend over the fate of mankind.

3. DANANG CITY, A SOLUTION

On a typically sweaty afternoon in 2010, a friend and I were driving around Ho Chi Minh City, when we stopped into a bookstore, since disappeared, called Bookazine, on Dong Khoi Street in District 1. The owner was an old fellow and his store sold only old things so it reeked of valuable history and hot dust. Among the piles of old maps, old stamps, and old black and white studio photographs, I found a copy of the 1969 US military document, a proposal to reconstruct the city of Danang on Vietnam’s central coast into a sister metropolis to Saigon. This exhaustively researched text, written under the assumption that the United States would win the war, emphasized the urgency to develop Danang because of Saigon’s status as a Primate City.

What is a “primate city? Mark Jefferson first explored this type of city in 1939. He defines primate city in various ways ranging from capital to largest city; qualifying that the capital has to be twice as large in population as the next largest city.

A Primate City is a “city that grossly outweighs its local national rivals in size and importance. Saigon, Bangkok, Manila, Phnom Penh, and Rangoon all primate urban structures, are at least five times as large as the next biggest city in their respective countries.”

More important are the detrimental effects attributed to these cities. They are thought to:
1. Hinder the growth and development of other cities within the country.
2. Control and dominate the cultural pattern.
3. Absorb technical skills and manpower.
4. Swallow-up available national and foreign investment.
5. Tend to consume more than they produce. (15)”

Saigon [according to this document, was] a grossly overused city.

Danang’s development, however, could offset Saigon and stabilize Vietnam.

Danang, one of South Vietnam’s six autonomous municipalities, is situated to the east of Quang Nam Province along the South China Sea. Danang is approximately 605 air-kilometers north of Saigon and is South Vietnam’s second city. Danang’s splendid physical setting demands attention. The following sums it up nicely:

It is at the latitude of Danang (16º N.) that the major elements of the Vietnamese landscape— the sea, the coastal plains, the mountains, the rivers— meet and combine in one spectacular scenic composition.

Here, at Vietnam’s “waist,” the green agricultural mosaic of the turtle coastal plain is interrupted by a half-mile high skyline— the Nui Hai Van spur of the Annamite Mountains veering east into he South China Sea.

A ten-kilometer gap in this intrusive mass makes space for a big blue bay from which the surrounding hills rise steeply into the tropical clouds. High grass clothes the foothills and the mountains are blanketed with luxuriant jungle growth.

The bay shore forms a graceful arc and is defined by the two rivers that issue into it, the Cu De from the west and Han from the south. Extending from the alluvial plain to the base of 2,000-foot high Tien Sha Mountain, once an island, is connected to the shore by an extensive sandpit formed by the opposing currents of the sea and the bay. By the ocean is the excellent six-mile My Khe (China Beach).

Punctuating the southern part of this strand is the picturesque group of historical limestone pinnacles called Ngu Hanh Son (Marble Mountains) which rise some three hundred feet out of the fine tan sand. In from the sea to the west bank of the Han River, on a rise of old river deposits, is the historical settlement of Danang.

Danang should have a bright future.

The mountain is so grand that from its peak you can see tiny islands in the South China Sea. These tiny bits of earth are called the Paracel Islands. Almost no civilians have ever been to this archipelago. It’s a place for experts, like navy personnel.

At 16°N, Danang City is at the same latitude as these Paracel Islands. You’ve got a straight shot at them from the top of Son Tra Mountain. In theory: control Danang and you control those islands. In theory: control the Paracel Islands and you control the oil coming from the Middle East. For Middle Eastern oil to reach the powers of Asia it must travel through the Straight of Malacca in Singapore and then into the South China Sea.

National borders are defined by land not by water. The Paracel Islands are like freckles of earth in the middle of the South China Sea that possess the power to extend and define national borders across the vast blue ocean.

Maybe this is why the Chinese and Vietnamese were having a water fight on the sea last summer. Supposedly, the Chinese were shooting Vietnamese ships with powerful water hoses as a way to provoke the Vietnamese to shoot with something else. It looked like they were fooling around— lost boys on an island— until someone could no longer take a joke.

Danang should have a bright future. Everyone wants her. Everyone has wanted her.

4. DANA NG, EYEBALL SUCKER

Dana Ng is a fairy who comes down to Son Tra Mountain to play chess. She is a young child of Chinese descent, though she has taken a Western first name. She’s got the blackest and shiniest hair,as black and shiny as an oil slick. Her complexion is white and gray like marble dust. Her uniform is like that of a Chinese or Vietnamese merchant dressed too warmly for the torrid weather, with enough pockets to fit stacks of cash and a big mobile phone.

Dana Ng is agile, a sprinter. She can squat down and leap up tirelessly. She plays chess every day like a mortal child goes to school. It’s an academic affair, a prerequisite to all other pursuits.

Dana Ng’s real major, though, is “heavens’ eyeball sucker.” The cunning girl targets the red-shanked douc langurs and sucks their eyes out through a long plastic straw. She collects them in a cup filled part way with mucus and blood. Sometimes she eats them, as they have the fun, gelatinous consistency of tapioca pearls. When out on a hunt, Dana Ng looks no different than a young Asian school girl enjoying a bubble tea after school.

The red-shanked douc langurs have eyes that are completely black, the blackest you have ever seen, the black of outer-space, and glazed wet, like shiny tapioca pearls. Used as bullets, they splatter with the viscosity of an egg yolk— making them one of the strongest adhesives on earth.

Dana Ng is an agent of China. In awe and admiration of American concepts and strategies, Dana Ng shoots the red shanked douc langur’s eyeballs from her straw. She targets old homes, stores, and any establishment that interferes with a 1969 US military plan to reconstruct Danang. Dana Ng interprets their goals and selects structures to mark. The plan focuses on several points:

Direction of Growth: Like most cities situated on bays, Danang will probably grow around Danang Bay, with minor growth towards Marble Mountains.

Two considerations lend force to this statement: 1) the lands directly south of the old city which would normally constitute the natural avenue for growth, are marshy and unsuitable for urban use, and 2) the lands which lie around the bay, are drier, better drained and more suitable for urban use.

[…]

Development of a Hotel Complex Along the South China Sea: The extensive sandspit, formed by the opposing currents of the sea and the bay which connects Tien Sha Mountain with the mainland is an ideal site for tourist hotels and apartments. […]
A Miami Beach type of development, with hotels along the beach, for this area appears most plausible.

[…]

Central City Area (The Core Area): This old French area will become the nucleus of the new city center.

[…]

Danang Bay Beach: Call it the “revolution of rising expectations”, (68) […] The fishing villages and squatters along the Bay may gradually give way to free the Danang Bay beach for recreational use.

[…]

New Roads: Roads are the skeleton of a plan.

When Dana Ng finishes shooting at all of her targets, the obsolete structures are splattered with black eyeball explosions. From high in the heavens the other fairies can see exactly what needs to be destroyed to ensure a stable future for Vietnam.

Every summer, the fairies’ council gathers to plan their program of typhoons that will hit Danang City between September and March of the following year. One fairy will direct the sun to heat the South China Sea. Another fairy will pull winds from all places so that another fairy can catch moisture from the ocean. A team of fairies funnel this air into a hot upward spiral creating the eye of the cyclone. This is how a typhoon is created. Once it has gathered enough power, all of the fairies in the heavens settle around it, clutching bits of cloud so that it will not get away. Then, when the time is right, all of the fairies let go at once and the typhoon obliterates all that is obsolete in Danang.

5. BLIND PRIMATES

The red-shanked douc langur is complacent about losing its eyes. After the pounce, Dana Ng crouches over the primate’s body, one leg in the groin area, the other on its chest. She inserts the straw into the eye socket, and sucks— usually the whole eyeball comes out in one deep inhalation.

The langur’s eye sockets bleed for a few days. The blood dries up and it flakes away, like dead skin. As this layer of residue is shed, their empty eye sockets fade into a cold white color, revealing the back of their skulls. The bone is the color of clouds, and when they tilt their heads upwards, it’s as if they reflect the heavens— the origins of the future.

In the first few weeks of darkness, the red-shanked douc langur is disoriented. It doesn’t know what is day or night, when the sun shines or when the moon glows. The red-shanked douc langur gains new habits. Quiet times, when there are no sounds of birds or vehicles, become the new “day”. The red-shanked douc langurs become nocturnal.

Their days start at sunset, when humans are at home eating and birds are going to sleep. The families of langurs have selected new places to eat. Now, for the first time, they can touch the earth; they are not limited to moving within the trees. In darkness, the earth and the trees are the same, and everything but air is a surface. They cross the roads that were too wide, and find their families once again. They even enter the Intercontinental Danang, climb on the marble columns and walk on the opulent altar place.

Hand-bound artist book: cut paper, ink, colored pencil, monoprint, and screen print on paper
21" x 31" closed; 44.5" x 47.5" open
2014

SPRINGTIME ALWAYS WELCOMES THE HEROES.

SPRINGTIME ALWAYS WELCOMES THE HEROES.

1

BROMELIA NEOREGELIA

2

Why ask my generation?
As is the generation of leaves, so is that of humanity.
The wind scatters the leaves on the ground, but the live timber
burgeons with leaves again in the season of spring returning.
So one generation of men will grow while another dies.

3

There is an ecosystem
inside of the bromelia neoregelia,
the epiphyte that clings onto
the large trunks of trees by its roots.

4

The center of the plant is a cup
that holds rainfall. It is a pond where
all of the flowers grow.
Many emerald green buds stick
their tops through the surface
of the water.
The buds are wet and glimmering; seductive
as you try to glimpse at your reflection.

5

The green and yellow leaves
of the bromelia neoregelia
wrap around the center cup.
They are secured to
the root of the plant,
dig into the base, and
extend outward towards
the air.

6

You always know when
the flowers are coming
because the leaves of
the bromelia neoregelia bleed
a pomegranate color. The red floods
the green and yellow stripes,
making the leaves monochromatic.

7

You always know when
the heroes are coming
because the leaves of
the bromelia neoregelia bleed
a pomegranate color. The red floods
the green and yellow stripes,
making the leaves monochromatic.

8

It is Achilles who is bleeding, and his
mother is wailing.
She gave birth to the perfect son,
half god, half mortal.
He was without fault and powerful,
conspicuous among heroes as he
shot up like a young tree.
She nurtured him like a young tree
grown in the pride of the orchard.

9

Achilles should die,
because when you see him live,
and he looks on the sunlight,
he has sorrow,
and you can do
nothing to help him.
He has sorrow that you
can do nothing about
because he does not believe
that he will be immortalized by
the new generations of
men in poetry.

10

He has sorrow
that you can do
nothing about because
he does not believe
that he will be immortalized by
the new generations
of leaves that the wind
scatters on the ground.

11

The flowers of
the bromelia neoregelia
shoot up like young trees.
They appear in a startling
blue color,
the kind of blue you see on Pluto.
The petals look
like tissue paper
sticking out of a box.
But like tissue paper,
their time is short,
and they wrinkle up
and fall away.

12

These flowers die upon full bloom.

13

Achilles dies upon full bloom.

14

But soon, the roots sprout
a genetically identical
bromelia neoregelia and
the life cycle of the epiphyte continues,
still clinging
onto the large trunks of trees
by its roots.

15

If an epiphyte
thrives in an environment,
there is no need for
sexual reproduction—the production of
an individual.
Vegetative reproduction—the production of
a clone, is preferable
as it maintains the harmony
with the habitat.
The population stays strong;
it becomes a biomass of
genetically identical organisms physically
separate in every way.

16

The epiphytes always come back the same,
and the bromelia neoregelia always dies
in full bloom.

17

The heroes always come back in the spring,
and Achilles always dies
in full bloom.

18

Bromelia Neoregelia

This unique artist book was written and created by the artist,
Tammy Nguyen.

The italicized texts were taken from the following:

Homer. The Iliad of Homer. Trans. Richmond Lattimore. Illus.
Leonard Baskin. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,
1962. Print.

Homer. The Homeric Hymns. Trans. Apostolos N. Athanassakis.
London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976. Print.

The papers used in this book include 120g Magnani Arturo
Buttercream, a variety of Japanese rice papers, 90lb Stonehenge Fawn, and Yupo paper. Images are drawn with ink pen and colored pencil. The printing methods used include monoprinting and silkscreen. The book is wrapped in silk and the boards are made from 1/4” MDF and 1/8” hardboard. The adhesives used include Jade glue and Gudy-O. Aluminum posts are used where parts pivot. The fonts used include Quadrata Roma Medium Oblique 25pt and Calisto MT Regular and Italic, 30pt.

This book is one of three in the series: Hermes, the Epiphytes.

Copyright © 2014

[signed]

Tammy Nguyen

back cover

back cover

back cover

Hand-bound artist book: cut paper, ink, colored pencil, woodblock, and screen print on paper
26" x 24" closed; 33" x 52" open
2014

The Greek word for spring is hŌra,
which shares the same root as hero.

Cut paper, watercolor and gouache on paper, hand bound book
26 x 50 in opened
2013

Japanese woodblock with chine collé, marbling, and hand coloring on various papers, hand bound book
28 x 28 in closed
2013

1

2

3

Japanese woodblock with chine collé, marbling, and hand coloring on various papers, hand bound book
28" x 28" closed
2013

Spandex sleeve, collage, ink, and colored pencil on various papers, hand bound book
16.5 x 4.5 in closed, 28 x 26 in opened
2013

1

Avian flu is often spread among migratory birds as they share the same ecosystems and breed across disparate places.

2

Birds outnumber humans by the millions, so it is no surprise that avian flu has been transmitted to human populations—

3

mostly by proximity to their feces.

4

Sometimes avian flu can be deadly, but most of the time it’s just a common flu virus—

5

a cold that is annoying at first,

6

but you become immune to it in the end.

Paper, watercolor, crayon, and acrylic on various papers, hand-bound book
10 x 12 in closed, 26 x 23 in opened
2013

1

Don't use the knife that touched the raw chicken.

2

You could catch Salmonella

3

a type of food poisoning commonly linked to poultry.

4

It is a rod-shaped bacteria that thrives in

5

the intestinal lining of chickens.

6

Humans can become infected with Salmonella

7

through ingesting undercooked chicken.

8

Usually our gastric acids will kill bacteria.

9

But if it gets caught within the mucus of the oesophagus,

10

bacteria can travel to the digestive system,

11

where it will cause illness.

12

Symptoms develop between 12 to 72 hours.

13

NAUSEA

15

VOMITTING

16

CHILLS

17

FEVER

18

DIARRHEA

19

MUSCLE ACHES

20

AND LOSS OF APPETITE

21

You could die,

22

but this is rare.

23

Most likely illness will last from 5 to 7 days.

Tips on how to not overcook your chicken.

Pound the meat before you cook it.

Soak it in olive oil.

Bake it in sauce.

Poach it in salty water.

Deglaze it with butter and wine.

Color lithograph on paper with various media, hand bound book
24" x 22" closed, 24" x 50" opened
2013

Water Feathers and Golden Hands

by Tammy Nguyen

2

3

Her father was a tiny owl,
Unique from his flock.
And with song that was more like a howl,
Her mother was an enormous hawk.

4

Mother hawk had the most beautiful feathers in the world.
Made of waves of water, she graced the sky as they swirled.
You could make out shimmering minerals,
As she flapped her wings in steady intervals.

5

Father owl was famous for his golden hands,
Skilled in picking and clawing, he was a crafty hunter,
He could target a prey, snatch it on command,
No need to worry, he’ll feed you whatever he musters.

6

7

When they saw that their egg hatched into a human,
Mother hawk and father owl were quite surprised,
Loving their daughter, but not knowing how to care,
They thought of ways, they sat, they agonized.

8

This child has a breathtaking gaze,
And a mouth outlined with full lips,
It was clear that if the bird couple didn’t give her tips,
She could be lost in the rain for days.

9

10

11

Mother hawk thought,
That if she could give her daughter her feathers,
Then her daughter could pursue whatever she sought,
By having mother’s water, she’d seize her endeavors.

12

13

Father owl thought,
That if he could give his daughter his hands,
Then his daughter could pursue whatever she sought,
She would be the one making all the demands.

14

15

Mother hawk made her daughter a jacket out of banana leaves,
And she wove the water from her feathers into every stem,
She told her daughter, “Just put your mouth to your sleeve
And you will have the strength. Don’t be afraid of them.”

16

Father owl made his daughter a pair of glasses,
Molded from his hands, he used the best bark from a tree.
He told his daughter, “There are things I do not want you to see,
But when that happens, challenge them fiercely.”

14

15

Mother hawk made her daughter a jacket out of banana leaves,
And she wove the water from her feathers into every stem,
She told her daughter, “Just put your mouth to your sleeve
And you will have the strength. Don’t be afraid of them.”

16

Father owl made his daughter a pair of glasses,
Molded from his hands, he used the best bark from a tree.
He told his daughter, “There are things I do not want you to see,
But when that happens, challenge them fiercely.”

17

What the bird couple did not realize,
Is despite the tools that they gave their child,
What they gave her internally was worse than the wild,
Her genetics would be the cause of her demise.

19

Her mother gave her a bad case of cholesterol,
And a temper that makes her spit boil, shooting fireballs.
Her mother gave her high blood pressure,
And a cold case of selfish, an endless hunt for treasure.

20

Her father gave her bad eyesight,
And some anxiety that keeps her from sleep at night.
Her father gave her bad digestion,
And a tendency for paranoia, she tends to feel threatened.

You are holding this child; organs you’re viewing,
In fact, she is aging, page turn to page turn.
But she only wants to be where the few sing,
Making discoveries impossible to churn.

21

She’s wide-eyed and unafraid of the universe,
Protected by her parents’ love and armor,
How guilty they might feel to see their efforts reverse,
We all know that one day she can’t go on for longer.

She doesn’t know any better, eating berries and rocks,
She runs outside in the cold, forgetting her socks,
She doesn’t know that the stuff inside will take over,
Look at her now; tell her something before she gets older.

22

So what would you tell this child,
Now that you’ve seen her intestines,
Try and save her?
Don’t let her go where she is destined.

1

This is a human child,
Who was bore from two ancient birds.

My Twin Aunts
Color lithograph and silkscreen on paper, hand bound book
9.25’’ x 15.75’’
2013

1

My Twin Aunts
by Tammy Nguyen

2

I have identical twin aunts and they are extremely mean.

3

I lived with them once, in Vietnam. One time, I saw one of my aunts fling a knife at the maid. Another time, I saw the other one shoo a salesman out of the house with a broom. They made me come home by ten, and I had to be on my best behavior, or they’d tell my mother.

4

Vietnamese people are born censored by their elders. You can’t argue; you can’t disagree; you can’t say anything. In the case of my aunts, the one who was two minutes older was the boss. I was obviously never the boss, but I had my imagination.

5

My aunts were America-worshipers. They loved American things, from their cars to their lipstick. When they upset me, I would imagine them as conjoined hawks.

6

If they loved America so much, then being conjoined twins would be a perfect democracy. They would have to negotiate everything, otherwise they would have heart failure, bone failure, liver failure, brain failure, whatever failure, as they would have to share an organ to survive.

7

However, if they wanted to really get the American thing, they would have to adopt some form of individual pursuit, causing them to fly in different directions and breaking their physical bond.

8

Funny thing is that soon after the Americans went to Vietnam and released Agent Orange there was a surge in conjoined twins— siblings with a biological democracy.

9

Children are sometimes worshipped in Vietnam because of their innocence. Some Vietnamese people regard conjoined twins as extra holy. They don’t live long and often remain children.

colophon

Pages have been turned at random.

Pages have been turned at random.

Pages have been turned at random.

Pages have been turned at random.