50 - RISD MFA Thesis Project

Photo: Ethan Brossard

50

Acrylic, screenprint, colored pencil, plaster on dibond
60 x 96 x 2 inches | 152.4 × 243.8 × 5.1 cm
2025

Master of Fine Arts Thesis Project
Rhode Island School of Design

2025 marks fifty years since the end of the Vietnam War (known in Vietnam as the Resistance War Against America) and thirty years since the normalization of Vietnam–United States relations.

From its wartime backdrop, Vietnam has transformed from one of the world’s poorest countries into a thriving economy with growing regional influence. Today, Vietnam and the United States share an increasingly dynamic relationship, built over decades of reconciliation and evolving across political, economic, and cultural fields. Yet in Western contemporary art discourse, Vietnam’s subjectivity continues to be framed through the lens of war, trauma, and survival.

Grounded in archival materials documenting RISD student activism from 1968 to 1973, this site- and time-specific thesis project explores the evolving bilateral relationship beyond dominant narratives, reflecting on the present-day connection between the two nations, fostering mutual understanding, and imagining new possibilities for the future.

DOWNLOAD MASTER THESIS (LINK 1) (LINK 2)

Special thanks to Anna McNeary, Jenny Chen, David Dilks, Ed Brown, Julia Gualtieri, and Minh Nguyen.