Hien Huynh

Learn more about Hien Huynh on his website here. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Learn more about Hien Huynh on his website here. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Born in fishing village, Nam O, on the bay of Da Nang, Vietnam. Hien Huynh acknowledges the inherit rhythm, vibrations of life, and energies that coexists in multifrequencies; to honor, align, and amplify the interconnectedness with our environment and the beings all around. Hien is wholeheartedly striving to participate in igniting and inspiring compassion and the oneness among all beings.

This past year, Hien performed on Angel Island with Lenora Lee Dance and had his own original performance with his mother at the Asian Art Museum in a tender performance called Soft Wounds. Curators of NEVER STOP MOVING asked him a few questions about some of the work he did this year and his process of collaborating with family, choreographers, landscapes and more. Read their Q&A with him below and get tickets to witness an original performance by Hien at this Friday’s performing arts showcase at SOMArts Cultural Center!

Tell us about Soft Wounds, a duet with you and your mother performed at the Asian Art Museum earlier in March. Did your mother have any experience performing beforehand? What was it like to engage with and share the memories, trauma, and history of your family, and specifically your mother?

There were many firsts that occurred during the duet with my Mother and I. She flew in from Vietnam 7 days prior to the show. We spent 7 days living together - just us- this was our first time sharing this much time alone - she’s never been on stage before nor performed - so we began where we both felt familiar - our relationship. I learned and felt so much of her childhood, her time in prison, her physical injuries bared throughout the years, her fears - all while she woke up early everyday cooking meals for us during the entire process. Altogether, this coming together - I brought my younger sister and younger brother to surprise my mother during the show - this allowed us time and space to finally cry, embrace, and grieve about my older’s sisters passing away 12 years ago...

Photo courtesy of Hien Huynh.

Photo courtesy of Hien Huynh.

Earlier this year, you also participated in Within These Walls / Dreams of Flight which grappled with the history of Angel Island State Park and those who came through its walls. How did you think about working within a living and growing space and embodying its history? How important is site in your movement work and are there any other locations that you'd like to perform in one day?

It was an honor to be shared with; I was given a biography of Wong Gong Jue, a young man who was detained there. As I performed throughout the space, I noticed this audience member following me throughout every room and pathway. In the end, I found out I was embodying the role of her father. I felt my spirit cry to acknowledge this transcendence of time and memory. It was both haunting, and awakening to be in the actual space; to feel the timelessness of then and now; an opening of consciousness of what happened then and what is still happening in today’s plight. I feel it is utmost important to acknowledge the location, the history, the residual memories, the beings that reside and how the movement work contributes, activates, and opens space for the sharing and bringing forth to the here and now. 

How do you navigate all these different kinds of collaborations -- with family, with living venues, with companies and choreographers, and also finally, by yourself as a solo artist? What are you looking for when working and sharing with others?

I feel it all comes together with deep listening and sensitivity. The more I learn of my family, the more it roots and grounds me further in belief in what I do, and the more I acknowledge the living spaces, the more I can let go of my own ego to find both harmony and spaciousness. Whilst working with companies and choreographers I try best to honor their own sensitivities, questions, and how might my own questions and felted-ness intertwine with their’s. I am hoping for an awareness of our interconnectedness - how we acknowledge our differing paths but at the same time our oneness - breaking the fourth wall to just be together, share stories and circulate compassion.

Hien Huynh performing on Angel Island. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Hien Huynh performing on Angel Island. Photo courtesy of the artist.

How have your own experiences as an artist working with family and diaspora helped you understand the needs of voices that go underrepresented?

Working with family - I’ve come to realize again and again; there is so much unspoken - unshared - embedded in the everyday - from the way food is cooked, single words are spoken, gestures, hidden in our languages and history - I am deeply inspired to share what fragment I can from the pieces I’ve come to learn of - and in hopes of filling the constellations of stories we all have together in the underrepresented.

The theme for this year's APAture is DECLARE. How, in your work, do you see yourself making declarations? 

It all came from and is from and is now, love. I want to declare the love that my parents had for one another that brought us all back together. I declare a space and time where we can honor the multiplicities of stories. I declare a space in letting go of fear and how with truth, we can operate and see one another from a place of love and light.

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Witness an original performance by Hien Huynh in APAture’s 20th Anniversary Festival, this Friday, October 25, 8-10PM at NEVER STOP MOVING (doors open at 7:30pm)!

APAture 2019: DECLARE also runs through this Sunday, October 27, the day of the closing artist talk to BOUNDLESS at Arc Gallery & Studios. Get your presale tickets and RSVP to these last two events here!

Jason Bayani