Diane Severin Nguyen: In Her Time.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nguyen, Diane Severin, Artist.

Contributor:

Zhu-Nowell, X, Curator, Editor.

Library Stack, Distributor.

Language:

Chinese

English

Subjects (All):

Films.

Motion pictures.

Historical reenactments.

Nationalism.

War.

Genre:

Ephemera

Ephemera.

Exhibition catalogs.

Screenplays

Screenplays.

Physical Description:

1 online resource.

Place of Publication:

[Place of publication not identified] : Rockbund Art Museum, 2023.

Summary:

"Diane Severin Nguyen's artistic intervention first began at Hengdian World Studios, the largest film studio in Asia. Known for its vast architectural sets, which span a historical timeline of 5,000 years, Hengdian is a popular destination for filmmakers and tourists who wish to visualize a cohesive national history. The city itself is comprised of a large population of migrant workers who relocate to Hengdian to work as background actors, often with greater aspirations for screen time and stardom. Riffing on neorealist conventions with subjects performing as themselves, In Her Time follows the journey of a struggling actress named Iris (Li Meixian) as she prepares for her first leading role in a historical war film set during the Nanjing Massacre of 1937. We catch glimpses of Iris from the isolation of her apartment to the generic outskirts of Hengdian City, where she rehearses lines unseen. A car takes her between soundstages and various sets - bamboo forests, a jail, and a village under siege. Confession, rehearsal, and performance are interwoven to paint a conflicted portrait of an artist who must re-enact painful events in order to express her ideal vision of the future. Nguyen's In Her Time advances her artistic practice of exploring the relationship between performative media and historical trauma. Set against the authoritarian backdrop of both nationhood and filmmaking itself, the artist questions how our capacity to fantasize about progress may be dependent on our power to resurrect the past. Integrating the nostalgic and revisionist impulses of historical reenactment, Nguyen's film converges different temporal and spatial realities to relay the drama of finding an authentic self within a pre-determined script. As Iris' repetitious lines gradually slip away, they become embodied mantras caught in the circularity of historical production. In a cascading sequence of final scenes, the distinction between Iris' desires and those of her character dissipates, as does that between victim and perpetrator, leaving the audience to question her revolutionary motives: "If I hadn't created my own world, I would have died in someone else's.""-- provided by distributor.

Notes:

Archived and cataloged by Library Stack

Standard Copyright.

Description based on online resource landing page (Library Stack, viewed on 2026-07-16).