Art exhibition opening night for Mountain Waits by Martin Lam Nguyen, C.S.C.
27 October 2023
Doors open at 6 PM talk at 7 PM
This event is free; we just ask that you please register at the link in bio so that we know how many people to expect.
Earlier this year, Myriam Nicodemus, co-founder and co-owner of the EM EN Art House, was hired by the St. Joseph County Public Library, United Religious Community of St. Joseph County, And Neighbor-To-Neighbor to photograph a series documenting refugees who now live in South Bend. One of the people she had the honor of photographing was Martin Lam Nguyen, C.S.C.
During the conversation, while photographing Fr. Martin for the Blurred Lives photography series, Fr. Martin learned that both Myriam and her partner, co-founder and co-owner of EM EN Khoa Huynh, are also immigrants. Fr. Martin shared one of his art pieces with Khoa and Myriam and explained the meaning behind it, which is his own journey as an immigrant. The connection between one another in that moment made both Khoa and Myriam feel less alone in this all-round journey as immigrants. At that moment, Myriam knew she had to create an event to highlight Fr. Martin’s incredibly profound artwork on a subject rarely discussed in length and publicly through such unique art in South Bend. Myriam and Khoa invited Fr. Martin to display his artwork reflecting his immigration journey at the EM EN Art House.
The art installation will be displayed at the EM EN Art House from October 27, 2023, to November 27, 2023.
REGISTER HERE
Mountain Waits
Mountains loom large in my psyche since that morning twenty years ago when I was in the South China sea going northeast. I was leaving Vietnam on a fishing boat. Twenty years of life and everything I had come to know and possess was instantly reduced to a range of deep green mountains standing against a vast sea of water. Soon, all disappeared under the line of water. I went forward toward an unknown shore. Mountain waits.
In the literature and mythology of Vietnam, mountains and sea are elements both sacred and omnipotent. In modern history, they are the places for hiding, controlling, a gateway for both invasion and escape. Most especially, they are the burial ground of many people. Here, mountains and sea are the victimized. They are mute witnesses and eternal protectors of human stories.
I travel among these three thousand mountains as in the vastness of life itself. Each mountain holds a story, a face, a name or an episode of life. Time let's a person return to an old place as if for the first time. In a flight of contemplation, I look at the past as a visitor from another life. Even many lives, perhaps. All these lives, however, are in one body, suffused with layers of memories. Facing each mountain, I have no question, no answer, no judgment and no power to alter these memories.
I wish that I had come back sooner; but there is time to leave and there is time to come back. The mountain is there waiting my return.
- Martin Lam Nguyen, C.S.C.