Kiều-Anh Nguyễn
My manager will continue to update after his floating
ice cream fairy
Working with ice cream was my initial step into exploring olfactory experiences. As my artistic research evolved, I began using ice cream as a medium of comfort—one that can absorb and reflect the environment in which I’m working. It also serves as an icebreaker, soothing and easing the way into deeper connections with the communities I engage with, allowing me to better understand and connect with them.
From 2020 to 2021, as part of my research and development at Freezedom—an independent, experimental gelato atelier founded in 2020—I experimented with over 70 ice cream flavors, using locally sourced ingredients and cross-flavor combinations. My focus was on creating sensory experiences that challenge traditional food pairings, exploring how flavors and scents are perceived. This practice investigates the capture of aromas in ice cream, a transient medium, and presents an unconventional approach to experiencing scent. Through the medium of ice cream, aroma is explored in depth across diverse textures and temperatures, offering a multi-dimensional scent experience.
some of the (photogenic) experiments:
1. madagascar vanilla cream + fresh basil
2. fleur d’orange fior di latte + strawberry compote
3. pomergranate jasmine sorbet
4. rhubarb + beet sorbet
5. panettone cream with rum infused dried fruit and sourdough bread
6. classic stracciatella
7. violette + juniper cream
8. ylangylang black tea
ice cream as a memory vessel
Gudang garam
During the Indonesian kretek/Gudang Garam shortage in COVID, I crafted this ice cream from scratch using traditional Vietnamese therapeutic herbs and alcohol. It was an attempt to replicate the rich, flavorful experience of smoking Gudang Garam—without the cigarette itself.
This creation was supported and sold by Freezedom in 2021.
Flower-Watch
Time-based installation, 20x12 cm
2021, Hanoi
ice cream as a landscape
Fish flavoured fish ice cream
lá dổi (mexican pepperleaf)
hạt dổi (michelia tonkinesis seed)
ปลาร้า (fermented fish powder)
with Month of Arts Practice 2024, Oct-Dec 2024
thanks to Bảo tàng Di sản Văn hoá Mường (The Museum of Muong Culture & Heritage)
For MAP 2024 “Going places, Moving things”, ba-bauthanks to Bảo tàng Di sản Văn hoá Mường (The Museum of Muong Culture & Heritage)
AIR relocates their residency to Hoà Bình as a tribute for lost homelands and discovering landscapes of labour, nature and spiritual. Kiều-Anh explores the region through its natural landscapes, cultural heritage, and culinary traditions, rooted in the native Mường ethnic community. She delves into their indigenous flavor profiles by foraging while blending them with the diasporic influences of the Viet-Thai community that has resided in Hoà Bình since 1945.
The earthy green taste of lá & smoky hạt dổi are the
tribute to the Mường who lived and breathed air and
sacred land. The crispy yet chocolaty fermented fish
flakes are little gems from the residents of Baan Noorg
Collaborative & Arts who paved ways for us to be in
touch with the Viet-Thai community in Hoà Bình.
A Daily Dairy Diary
“one for the cow”
inspired by what the cows digest before everything turns into milk
local raw milk
straws / hay collected from different farms
chommanad (breadflower)
butterfly pea flower
pandan
”one for the farmer”
inspired by the farmers’ daily meal& their requests / imagination of a new ice cream flavor local (rice with thai holy basil and meat)
raw milk | kra pao
(thai holy basil)
in collaboration with Local Ice Cream shop “Sai-Fon”, Nongpho local dairy farm: Montri Farm, Yamsiri Farm, Son of Auntie Aoun Farm, Ophat Farm, p’ Nat’s garden *with Baan Noorg Collaborative Arts & Culture under AIR Asia Residency, 2024
“In this project, Kiều-Anh is concentrating on dairy milk, where raw milk is a significant economic product of Nong Pho community, Kiều-Anh aims to expand her interests focused on the root of the milk consumption chain, starting from the local resources. Following her previous practice in experimenting ice cream flavors and testing the raw milk from 4 dairy farms, Kiều-Anh revisits this medium - a dairy product that is considered a leisure treat - as a bridge, in conversations among local dairy farms of different sizes and scopes, as well as in line with the surrounding community’s context and consideration of geography, ecosystem and household economic. By doing so, Kiều-Anh collaborated with the first original local milk producer, Saifon Shop, to churn her observation from raw milk into two new flavors of ice cream, opening an intimate conversation between the cow and its owner, or perhaps - a collective expectation and experience, stemming from local tradition and knowledge to a future of unknown, freshly and sincerely from farm to table.”
text by Awika Sarmuksaman