Nhi Le is a performance artist based in Sai Gon, Vietnam. Her practice focuses on spiritual energy, improvisation, and interaction with her audience and space. Nhi observes social behaviour and connections between humans, space, and time; she recreates familiar movements and gestures, and then places them into uncanny contexts to invite new perspectives and questions about their conception and meaning. Outside of the performative element, Nhi aims to discover new methods of creating artistic experience for spectators by making them a part of her work and adjusting their physical positions in the performance.

Performance art, to Nhi, is stepping out of the current flow of time to find an original self not confined or shaped by any factor, waiting to be awakened.

Courtesy of artist

On November 2, 2024, Nhi Le implemented a performance titled “The Laundry Room” at VAC Hanoi Residency. Each spectator was required to experience the performance by oneself without knowing what to expect. Throughout the performance, Nhi Le worked with volunteers whose bodies were considered part of the work.

Here, Nhi Le shares with us about her thoughts on the performance, “The Laundry Room”:

The bodies are moving continuously, from place to place. I always wonder what is the meaning of a performance body in space.

Perhaps I can not feel the presence of myself in the living moment. Therefore, the destinations that I have been to will always catch my attention. I think each place has its own shape, history, and special connection with its people. As a performance artist, not only the structure of one space, lighting, and present conditions but also its energy and strange but unique features will be the things I work with.

Courtesy of artist

During my VAC residency, I found myself often working on the fifth floor beside the laundry room of the building. I often read books on the black square table beside a teal mug and magnify the vision of the lake view. Gradually, it becomes my hidden place and brings the scenario as if it were the peak of the mountain.

Meanwhile, other rooms of VAC are all filled up with modern and newish interiors, lighting systems... The laundry room is strangely old and surrounded by darkness. The walls are moldy. High ceiling with soft light from the rooftop. The wet atmosphere and the heat make us feel annoyed, which reminds us of some familiar places in the past. The door to the laundry room has three lockers. Does it represent something that is hidden or forgotten?

During the night, I usually stand staring inside the laundry room and its blank space, imagining bodies show up all of a sudden; they do not talk and maintain a stare at me... It was the moment I knew there would be a performance here.

An artist’s sense is always activated to observe the world. I want to create a space where it could evoke others' senses. Instead of standing around and watching the performance, the audience stands in the artwork. The artwork not only takes on the form of the artist’s body but also the air and surrounding features. All the tangible and intangible materials connect with each other, creating more for audiences to see and feel. Laying in the present space, I’m trying to create a middle ground between reality and illusion.

Courtesy of artist

In performance art, its site-specific nature brings a new angle to places; it gives artists a chance to create specific and profound interactions. To some extent, it is a way for the artist to show appreciation for the things that has passed through her life, whether home, souvenir, or abandoned land.

The meaning of the performance for the laundry room is similar to the meaning of the laundry room for the artist. The performers appear and temporarily occupy the space. When they go away, they leave some part of their “body” in the space.