Kiều-Anh Nguyễn
My manager will continue to update after his floating
Somewhere between dry and drained
Interactive installation
Dimensions variable
Jelly & bar soap, ginger, essential oil, fat from beef stew, wintermelon soup, a sink, a rack, a refrigerator
Vietnamese Women’s Museum, Hanoi
2022
Hands of women, including my mom, grandmom, being castorized into scented shapes and then washed until vanished - is my question to the system: who is taking care of the caretakers?
The duality of women in daily life is illustrated through the scent of ginger:
playing as the heart of most healing gestures including comforting food, slow cooking and physical treatments but at the same time it is the ultimate cleaning method against unpleasant smells and body odors.
Meanwhile, wintermelon soup-soap is the confusion of how the double standard of comfortness and cleanliness is defined: a kitchen has to “smell good” with food but one should not bear any kitchen residue odor - the scent of domestic labor. As time went by, hands being distorted from washing, unrecognized, all became one generic hand of “care takers”.
photos (3-4) by Do Van Hoang