#nguyen

The Light The Shines Through the Universe

Tuan Andrew Nguyen, 2026

I absolutely love this!

Referencing the Bamiyan Buddhas destroyed in 2001, the sculpture is not a reconstruction but an echo of a form permanently lost.

I love that the Buddha’s hands are cast from melted artillery shells, which transforms instruments of violence into gestures of compassion. The hands do not seamlessly attach to the sculpture though, and a visible gap remains between the sculpture and hands.

The High Line in New York has selected artist Tuan Andrew Nguyen to produce its next plinth commission, scheduled to open next spring. Titled The Light That Shines Through the Universe, the commission will see Nguyen present a re-created version of one of the two Bamiyan Buddhas that once stood on a cliff in central Afghanistan. Dating to the 6th century CE, the Bamiyan Buddhas are typically…

When Amanda Nguyen’s smile pops up on my laptop computer display, she is on her second hour of a lengthy automotive journey in Vietnam, en path to Sa Pa for a birthday journey. The Nobel Peace Prize nominee turns 34 in lower than a week and she or he is in excessive spirits. “I just left a meeting with the deputy foreign minister of Vietnam,” she tells me. “I opened by giving him a pin I had…

Turning Red