The Propeller Group

{{Short description|Cross-disciplinary media arts collective}} {{Infobox company | logo = File:The Propeller Group logo.jpg | founders = Phunam Thuc Ha Matt Lucero Tuan Andrew Nguyen | name = The Propeller Group | location_city = Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Los Angeles, California, United States | foundation = {{Start date|2006}} | homepage = {{url|http://www.the-propeller-group.com}} {{url|http://teepeegee.com}} }} '''The Propeller Group''' is a cross-disciplinary structure for creating art projects. The collective is headquartered in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and works in conjunction with creative individuals in Los Angeles, California, United States.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2">[http://www.sfmoma.org/about/research_projects/storyboard/6l_artist_propeller_group "The Propeller Group."] ''SFMOMA on the Go''. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2014. </ref><ref name=":5">Swan, Ethan. [http://galeriequynh.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/TPG_New_Museum_Triennial.pdf "The Propeller Group, Founded 2006, Ho Chi Minh City."] In ''The Ungovernables, 2012 New Museum Triennial'', eds. Eungie Joo et al. New York: Rizzoli, 2012. Print.</ref>

== About ==

The Propeller Group was founded in late 2006 by visual artists Phunam Thuc Ha (born 1974, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam) and Tuan Andrew Nguyen (born 1976, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam), who were joined by Matt Lucero (born 1976, Upland, California) in 2008. Phunam studied sculpture and conservation in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, Thailand and at the Hanoi College of Fine Arts. Nguyen earned a BFA from the University of California, Irvine. He met Lucero while they were completing their MFA from the California Institute of the Arts. Lucero earned a BFA from the University of California, Riverside.<ref name=":1">[http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/artists/bios/11676 "The Propeller Group."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150221141622/http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/artists/bios/11676 |date=2015-02-21 }} ''Guggenheim: Collection Online''. Guggenheim Museum, n.d. Web. 25 March. 2014. </ref> As of late 2017, Phunam Thuc Ha and Matt Lucero are no longer active members of The Propeller Group having withdrawn to pursue more personal interests.<ref name=":30">Rose, Frank. [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/23/arts/design/propeller-group-art-collective-vietnam.html "Is It an Art Collective or a Vietnamese Ad Agency? Yes and Yes"] ''The New York Times''. Web. 23 Feb. 2018. </ref> Tuan Andrew Nguyen continues to work with the group. Whereas his own practice focuses on 'memory and its potential for political resistance', Nguyen's work with The Propeller Group explores 'the memory of the Cold War and its residual effects on how we perceive and how we relate to one another in the present day'.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Tuan Andrew Nguyen: The Limits of Narrative {{!}} Ocula|url=https://ocula.com/magazine/conversations/tuan-andrew-nguyen/|date=2020-04-30|website=ocula.com|language=en|access-date=2020-04-30}}</ref>

The collective is dedicated to developing original creative content, bridging between fine art and mainstream media.<ref name=":7" /> The group draws inspiration from television, film, video, and the Internet.<ref name=":6">''[http://www.the-propeller-group.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/2011_03_SingaporeBiennale.pdf Singapore Biennale 2011 Open House.]'' Singapore: Singapore Art Museum, 2011. Print.</ref><ref name=":10">Garcia, Cesar. [http://galeriequynh.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/TPG_LA_Biennial_2012.pdf "The Propeller Group."] In ''Made in L.A. 2012'', eds. Anne Ellegood et al. Munich: Prestel, May 2012. Print.</ref> They make large-scale collaborative projects in new media, from online viral campaigns, international film productions, television commercials, to art installations, and everything in between, taking a special interest in multimedia and mass communication.<ref name=":2" /> The collective employs strategies from advertising, marketing, and the rarefied forms of commodity exchange and display that take place in galleries and museums. Their medium and Vietnam are frequently their subjects.<ref name=":1" /> They use mass media as a platform to combine seemingly contradictory phenomena: advertising and politics, history and future, and public and private.<ref name=":5" /> They often push their work back into the public sphere, using commodities as a form of public art. The collective cites graffiti as a source of influence, as seen in their documentary ''Spray It Don't Say It (''2006), which follows the evolution of graffiti in Vietnam.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":9">Mehta, Diane. [http://bombmagazine.org/article/7073/ "The Propeller Group."] ''BOMB Magazine''. BOMB, 21 February 2013. Web. 25 Mar. 2014. </ref> The influence of graffiti is also present in ''Television Commercial for Communism ''(2011), drawing inspiration from the COST REVS tag, which mixes identity with advertising and branding and takes advantage of the public space.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":0">Brooks, Katherine. [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/18/the-propeller-group-is-on-our-radar-guggenheim-symposim_n_3103573.html "The Propeller Group Is On Our Radar: Multimedia Art Trio Talks Communism, 'Argo' And Graffiti (PHOTOS)."] ''The Huffington Post'','' ''18 Apr. 2013. Web 10 Jul. 2013. </ref>

===TPG Films=== thumb|TPG Films, The Propeller Group's second identity, functions as a full-service video production company. The Propeller Group also functions as the full-service video production company TPG Films.<ref name=":2" /> In addition to making music videos for Vietnamese pop singers Thanh Bui, Hoàng Thùy Linh, Minh Hằng, Hồ Ngọc Hà, Phương Vy, Anh Khang, Liêu Anh Tuấn, and the occasional commercials, TPG Films has collaborated with Vietnamese American artist Dinh Q. Lê on multimedia installation projects. They also regularly team up with Danish art collective Superflex, co-producing short films and video installations.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":7">Butt, Zoe. ''“''[http://galeriequynh.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/iCi_TPG_Interview_with_Zoe_Butt.pdf The Pilgrimage of Inspiration – Artists as Engineers in Vietnam: The Propeller Group interview with Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Phu Nam Thuc Ha, and Matt Lucero.”] ''Independent Curators International: Dispatch'', 13 May 2010. Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network, 9 Oct 2010.</ref>'' ''The distinction between The Propeller Group and TPG Films reflects the shifting relations between art and commerce.<ref name=":1" />

Phunam and Nguyen also co-founded the artist-run, non-profit, alternative space Sàn Art (Ho Chi Minh City) along with Dinh Q. Lê and Tiffany Chung in 2007.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />

== Works ==

Their works have been described as a blend of aesthetics and culture, between fine arts and mainstream media, between art gallery and the media world, between high culture and low culture, with an interdisciplinary and border-crossing appeal, a fusion of two seemingly different concepts and ideologies, such as the blend of the tool of capitalism (advertising) and ideology of communism in their project ''Television Commercial for Communism''.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":7" /><ref name=":9" /><ref name=":0" /> According to the Guggenheim Museum, "To appreciate the Propeller Group’s work is to enter an extended network of aesthetic and cultural production." The Propeller Group has been the subject of solo exhibitions at galleries and museums worldwide.<ref name=":1"/> Their work has been included in ''No Country: Contemporary Art for South and Southeast Asia'' at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York and ''The Ungovernables,'' New Museum Triennial. The collective, under the identity TPG, has also exhibited at Museum of Modern Art, Hammer Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Lombard Freid Gallery, Guangzhou Triennial, and Singapore Art Museum.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lombardfreid.com/the-propellergroup |title=The Propeller Group |year=2014 }}</ref>

=== Films ===

* ''Spray It Don't Say It'' (2006) – documentary film<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":9" /> * ''She Sells'' ''Seashells'' (2007) – short film, in collaboration with The Seashores * ''Burning Car'' (2008) – short film, in collaboration with Superflex * ''Flooded McDonald’s'' (2008) – short film, in collaboration with Superflex * ''The Financial Crisis'' (2009) – video clips for television broadcast, in collaboration with Superflex * ''Porcelain / Mảnh Ghép Cuộc Đời'' (2009) – three-part television mini-series, in collaboration with Superflex<ref name=":7" /> * ''FADE IN: EXT. STORAGE – CU CHI – DAY'' (2010) – short film, in collaboration with Superflex * ''The Guerillas of Cu Chi'' (2012) – short film * ''Light and Belief'' (2012) – short documentary film, with Dinh Q. Lê * ''The Living Need Light, The Dead Need Music'' (2014) – short film<ref name="mcachicago.org">[https://mcachicago.org/Exhibitions/2016/The-Propeller-Group "THE PROPELLER GROUP – Jun 4–Nov 13, 2016."] ''MCA: Exhibitions''. Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Web. 1 May 2017.</ref><ref name="artsy.net">[https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-the-propeller-group-s-gorgeous-new-show-captures-beauty-in-death "The Propeller Group’s Gorgeous New Show Captures Beauty in Death and Ballistics."] ''Artsy.net: Magazine''. Artsy.net. Web. 1 May 2017.</ref>

=== Video art ===

* ''The Farmers and the Helicopters'' (2006) (in collaboration with Dinh Q. Lê) * ''Uh'' (2007) * ''From Father to Son'' (2007) (in collaboration with Dinh Q. Lê) * ''South China Sea Pishkun'' (2009) (in collaboration with Dinh Q. Lê) * ''Modern Times Forever'' (2011) (in collaboration with Superflex) * ''Erasure'' (2011) (in collaboration with Dinh Q. Lê) * ''Television Commercial for Communism'' (2011)<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":10" /><ref name=":9" /><ref name=":3">[http://www.guggenheim.org/guggenheim-foundation/collaborations/map/sseasia/artist/the-propeller-group "The Propeller Group."] ''Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative: Artists''. Guggenheim Museum, n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2014. </ref><ref>Yap, June. [http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/artwork/31591 "The Propeller Group: 'Television Commercial for Communism.'"] ''Guggenheim: Collection Online – Artwork''. Guggenheim Museum, n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2014. </ref><ref>[http://www.guggenheim.org/video/the-propeller-group-on-the-production-of-tvcc "The Propeller Group on the Production of TVCC."] ''Guggenheim: Video''. Guggenheim Museum, 22 Jul. 2013. Web. 25 Mar. 2014. </ref><ref name=":4">Pearlman, Ellen. [http://hyperallergic.com/46883/the-ungovernables-flips-the-bird/ "The Ungovernables Flips the Bird."] ''Hyperallergic: Sensitive to Art & Its Discontents''. Hyperallergic, 17 Feb. 2012. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.</ref><ref name=":8">Chapman, Amy Howden. [http://www.chartwell.org.nz/News/CollectionNews/id/173/title/amys-column-06-made-in-la-review.aspx "Amy's Column 06 - 'Made in LA' Review."] ''Chartwell''. The Chartwell Collection, 18 Jul. 2012. Web. 25 Mar. 2014. </ref>

=== Interdisciplinary projects ===

* ''Temporary Public Gallery'' (2010): Renting out advertising space to curate artworks in public, the group attempts to challenge notions of public space, advertising, and public art in Vietnam as there are limitations of the public art due to control through different censorship bodies. * ''Estranged Fruit'' (2011): A study in the application of political history and socio-political meaning through the introduction of one of America’s most famous protest song, Strange Fruit, into China’s growing rock scene, via Chinese punk rock & industrial metal band, VooDooKungFu. Estranged Fruit was displayed in its first iteration in Hong Kong at 1A Space as an installation. * ''Vietnam the World Tour'' (2010–2012): A rogue anti-nation-rebranding campaign. It appropriates marketing language, graffiti strategies, and viral video platforms to re-associate a historically colonized and mediated national identity with an entirely new mediated history.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":9" /> * ''Static Friction: Burning Rubber'' (2012): An attempt to discuss the larger issues of globalism, economy, industry, individuality, rebellion, violence and aesthetics with one simple act: the burnout. Single channel video, modified Honda Wave, photographs.<ref name=":11">Carruthers, Ashley. [http://galeriequynh.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/TPG_Static_Friction_Ashley_Carruthers.pdf "Moto-mobile, Saigon/Motomobility."] Galerie Quynh, April 2012.</ref> * ''Static Friction'' (2012): A five-part work, including ''1967'', ''Collision'', ''The Dream'', ''Portraits of Mechanical Reproduction'', and ''Chasing Inertia''.<ref name=":11" /> * ''The History of the Future'' (2012): A two-part mold is shown in the gallery space along with an accompanying short film showing a series of packshots, inter-cut with a short documentary narrative of the artists’ journey to an unknown location to bury the sculpture. The GPS coordinates are kept in a steel safe rigged with a time-release mechanism, attached to a digital counter, counting down from 100 years, only to be unlocked when the counter reaches zero.

== Selected exhibitions and screenings ==

{| class="wikitable sortable" border="1" |- ! No. !! Title !! Year !! Location |- | 1 || 6th NHK Asian Film Festival || 2007 || Tokyo, Japan |- | 2 || ''The History of a Decade That Has Not Yet Been Named'' Lyon Biennial || 2008 || Lyon, France |- | 3 || ''Strategies from Within: Vietnamese and Cambodian Contemporary Art'' || 2008 || Ke Center, Shanghai, China |- | 4 || ''Farewell to Post-Colonialism'' 3rd Guangzhou Triennial || 2008 || Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China |- | 5 || ''Quiet Shiny Words''<ref name=":1" /> || 2008 || Galerie Quynh, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam |- | 6 || 4th Biennial Cinema Symposium || 2008 || Los Angeles, CA, USA |- | 7 || Gwangju Biennale || 2008 || Gwangju, Korea |- | 8 || ''The Farmers and the Helicopters'' || 2008 || Freer & Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., USA |- | 9 || Oberhausen Film Festival || 2009 || Germany |- | 10 || ''Palais Project'' || 2009 || Vienna, Austria |- | 11 || ''Intersection Vietnam'' || 2009 || Valentine Willie Fine Arts, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia |- | 12 || ''Against Easy Listening''<ref name=":1" /> || 2010 || 1A Space, Hong Kong |- | 13 || ''Your Name Here''<ref name=":1" /> (in collaboration with Tyke Witnes) || 2010 || Sàn Art at L’usine, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam |- | 14 || ''The Farmers and the Helicopters''<ref>[http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1061 "Projects 93: Dinh Q. Lê."] ''MoMA: Exhibitions''. Museum of Modern Art. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.</ref> || 2010 || Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA |- | 15 || ''FAX'' || 2010 || Para Site, Hong Kong |- | 16 || ''Video, an Art, a History'' || 2011 || Singapore Art Museum, Singapore |- | 17 || ''Project 35'' Independent Curators International<ref>Himmelrich, Jessie. [http://tulane.edu/liberal-arts/art/upload/project-35-brochure.pdf "6. Tuan Andrew Nguyen (Vietnam, born 1976), Phù Nam Thúc Hà (Vietnam, born 1974): 'Uh…', 2007."] In ''Selections from Project 35: International Video, October 20 through January 30, 2011''. Louisiana: New Orleans Museum of Art, 2011.</ref> || 2011 || Pratt Manhattan Gallery, NY, USA |- | 18 || ''Commercial Break'' 54th Venice Biennale

(presented by Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, Garage Projects) || 2011 || Venice, Italy |- | 19 || ''Negotiating Home, History and Nation'' || 2011 || Singapore Art Museum, Singapore |- | 20 || Singapore Biennale 2011 Open House<ref name=":6" /> || 2011 || Singapore Art Museum, Singapore |- | 21 || ''The Ungovernables: 2012 New Museum Triennial''<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":4" /><ref>[http://www.newmuseum.org/exhibitions/view/the-ungovernables "'The Ungovernables,' 2012 New Museum Triennial (02/15/12 - 04/22/12)."] ''New Museum Exhibitions''. New Museum, n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2014. </ref><ref>Rosenberg, Max. [http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/culture/2012/02/5290152/%E2%80%98-ungovernables%E2%80%99-more-serious-and-political-its-predecessor-still-ha "‘The Ungovernables’ is more serious and political than its predecessor, but still has a hard time defining a generation."] Capital New York, 17 Feb. 2012. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.</ref> || 2012 || New Museum, NY, USA |- | 22 || ''Made in L.A. 2012'' Los Angeles Biennial<ref name=":10" /><ref name=":8" /><ref>Knight, Christopher. [https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-xpm-2012-jun-08-la-et-hammer-biennial-review-20120609-story.html "Art Review: The Hammer Biennial 'Made in L.A. 2012' Succeeds."] ''Los Angeles Times: Entertainment. ''Los Angeles Times, 8 Jun. 2012. Web. 25 Mar. 2014. </ref><ref>[http://www.madeinla2012.org/artist/the-propeller-group-2/ "The Propeller Group."] ''Made in L.A. 2012''. Hammer Museum, n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.</ref> || 2012 || Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA, USA |- | 23 || ''The Unseen'' 4th Guangzhou Triennial || 2012 || Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China |- | 24 || ''Six Lines of Flight''<ref>Littlejohn, David. [https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390444032404578006184118522810 "Cities on the Edge."] ''The Washington Street Journal: Life and Culture: Arts and Entertainment''. The Washington Street Journal, 1 Oct. 2012. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.</ref><ref>[http://www.sfmoma.org/exhib_events/exhibitions/446 "Six Lines of Flight: Shifting Geographies in Contemporary Art, 15 September – December 31, 2012."] ''SFMOMA on the Go''. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.</ref><ref>Weng, Xiaoyu. [http://galeriequynh.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/TPG_Six_Lines_of_Flight.pdf "The Propeller Group."] In ''Six Lines of Flight: Shifting Geographies in Contemporary Art'', ed. Apsara DiQuinzio. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012. Print.</ref> || 2012 || San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA, USA |- | 25 || ''No Country: Contemporary Art for South and Southeast Asia'' Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3" /> || 2013 || Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, USA |- | 26 || ''Lived, Lives, Will Live!''<ref>Pearlman, Ellen. [http://hyperallergic.com/83313/the-propeller-group-lands-in-new-york/ "The Propeller Group Lands in New York."] ''Hyperallergic: Sensitive to Arts & its Discontents''. Hyperallergic, 17 Sep. 2013. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.</ref><ref>Brooks, Katherine. [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/19/the-propeller-group-lenin_n_3948104.html/ "The Propeller Group Reimagines The Image Of Lenin In ‘Lived, Lives, Will Live!’"] ''Huffington Post''. Huffington Post, 19 Sep. 2013. Web. 1 May 2017.</ref> || 2013 || Lombard Freid Gallery, New York, NY, USA |- | 27 || ''Lenin Piece'' Art Basel – Hong Kong<ref>Peel, Yana. [https://www.artsy.net/article/yanapeel-my-highlights-from-art-basel-in-hong-1 "My Highlights from Art Basel in Hong Kong 2014."] ''Artsy – Discover, Research, and Collect the World's Best Art Online''. Artsy, 5 May 2014. Web. 1 May 2017.</ref> || 2014 || Hong Kong |- | 28 || ''All the World’s Futures'' 56th Venice Biennale<ref>Baumgardner, Julie. [https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-5-artists-to-watch-venice-biennale-2015 "5 Names You’ll Know after the Venice Biennale."] ''Artsy – Discover, Research, and Collect the World's Best Art Online''. Artsy, 7 May 2015. Web. 1 May 2017.</ref> || 2015 || Venice, Italy |- | 29 || ''The Living Need Light, The Dead Need Music''<ref name="mcachicago.org"/><ref name="artsy.net"/> || 2016 || James Cohan Gallery, New York, NY, USA |- | 30 || ''Is It an Art Collective or a Vietnamese Ad Agency? Yes and Yes''<ref name=":30"/> || 2018 || New York, NY, USA |- |31 |''The Picture Will Still Exist''{{citation needed|date=June 2020}} |2017 |MoT+++, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam |- |}

== References ==

== External links == * [http://www.lombardfreid.com/the-propellergroup/ Lombard Freid Gallery] (Artist Page) * [http://www.the-propeller-group.com/ Official website] (as The Propeller Group) * [http://teepeegee.com/ Official website] (as TPG Films) * [http://www.sfmoma.org/explore/multimedia/videos/524?project=storyboard "Tuan Andrew Nguyen on Returning to Vietnam and Cofounding an Art Space"] on San Francisco Museum of Modern Art * [http://www.aaa.org.hk/Home/Search?globalKeyword=%28Group%29+The+Propeller+Group Exhibition information] on AsiaArt Archive * [http://lovelystationery.com/2012/07/the-propeller-group/ The Propeller Group] on Lovely Stationery * [https://artsy.net/artist/the-propeller-group/ The Propeller Group] on Artsy (website)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Propeller Group, The}} Category:Multimedia artists Category:Video artists Category:Vietnamese artist groups and collectives