mixed-media

Disturbed and Disruptive, a Healing Zine (2017)
                 A workbook inspired by and for survivor of structural and intimate violence, this zine is made from the accumulation of conversations I have with the womxn in my life. The workbook consists of writing prompts, rhetorical questions about identities and experiences, quotes, real questions on inner and outer demons that one can engage with. Yet it is the act of constructing this workbook, interacting with materials made of paper, newspaper, magazines, flyers, glue, old receipts, debris, that one can find some silver linings out of the mundane. This workbook allows one to be angry, hurt, full of hatred, regrets, to talk about self harms and wishes to harm, insofar as one knows they need to heal.   

Sample images of the hand-crafted zine, digitally reformatted for printer distribution.

ILLUSTRATIONS

To The Pure Abode (Digital Illustration)

           This painting depicts Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva/ Quan Thế Âm Bồ Tát/ Guanshiyin/ 관세음, the goddess of mercy, the Perceiver of Worldly Sounds, as an offering to the Asian sisters and aunties in Atlanta whose lives were cut short in the March 17th shooting. May you be healed, be embraced, be still. May She take you to the heart of the lotus and rest your souls in the Pure Abode. May you find peace.

All profit made from this painting is donated to @redcanarysong and Asian American Advancing Justice Atlanta. To purchase an e-copy of the painting, contact me.
Reimagining Queer Ancestors (Digital Illustration - Work in Progress)

        Upon researching áo dài, a Vietnamese traditional type of clothing that originates in the XI century during the Bắc thuộc (Chinese domination) that over the years has become the embodiment of Vietnamese national culture and history, I ran into old images of Vietnamese women as photographed by the French. Struck by the piercing gazes and daring poses of these women, I saw queerness and its expressions amongst these gestures. Against the way that áo dài throughout modern history has become gendered to uphold a Confucius patriarchal notion of femininity, one that bound women to the private and domestic realms of the home and the body, this illustration project redraws the photographed women's defiant poses and bodily expressions to call them queer. My queer ancestors - our queer ancestors - speaking to us with their gazes piercing through the colonial archive that could not contain nor name them. In the unnamed and untraced figures of Vietnamese women, there exists possibility and genealogy of queerness, waiting for its descendants. ​
Miscellaneous Projects 

        Ruminating on queer femme subjects and intimacy.
Copyrighted by Ly Thuy Nguyen. Do not repost without permission.