Kiều-AnhNguyễn
My manager will continue to update after his floating
November 2025 - Gallery Nord, Berlin
December 2025 - Mipec Long Bien, Hanoi
rice, rest, repeat
“beras.com” residency* with Bakudapan (ID), 2025
August presentation version at Warung Pelan-Pelan
Rice, rest, repeat is a multidisciplinary thematic research centering rice as an identity commodification, hoping to generate conversations on the larger ecosystem of landscape generating, trans-nations identity in globalization and displacement, and ways of reading accessible archive.
The name rice, rest, repeat was inspired by the northern Vietnam agriculture timetable: work on the field, eat rice, quick siesta, and then go back to work. According to the Javanese calendar and the leap lunar month of the Vietnamese, the duration of the residency was perfectly fitting to the resting phase before starting a new crop.
In August 2025, as a part of the duo residency* “beras.cơm” with Nindya Nareswari, Kieu-Anh’s research started with the traditional Javanese calendar in which time is recentered to the harvesting and farming cycle (Pranata Mangsa) - drawing is a compilation of ways of controlling and seeing time that centers around the growth of the rice plant. Through conversations with farmers and local multidisciplinary experts, the research questions and open for conversations that traces back to the origin of the rice plant itself to address societal issues relating to urban landscape and the repurpose of paddy field for gentrification in Yogjakarta and outskirts of Hanoi. On notes of archives, cross-fermentation was a method of “testing time” on varieties of German-imported, Vietnamese and Indonesian rice in reflection of hoarding, archiving and the testimonies of memories. Meanwhile, the act of forming recipes can be a way of continuing personal memories and making new collective traditions.
In notes of the wave of using rice as a well-requested perfume notes, localized + foraged materials around paddy fields were collected to make a trio of scents: rice, jasmine and soil of which they run on one accord base with modifications of identical ingredients - a little perfume game of deceiving that relates to how rice is being marketed differently in various markets, comparing to where it is produced versus where it is an exotic products for a minority group.
At the end, the performative dinner / reception is a gesture of harvesting and giving back to the community that we have been learning from. Varieties of rice produces, of innovations and tradition, of local and international, seasonal and commercial were presented on behalf of our gratefulness for a fruitful residency.
graphite & watercolour pencil on paper, 03 clay figures, scent of rice/jasmine/soil, zine, performative dinner, intip & gudeg ice cream
a breeze of thought on the scent of rice, rest and repeat - read here
Photography Muhammad Alfariz
*“at the invitation of the Goethe-Institut in the framework of Dealing in Distance residency presentation”.