Photos in wooden lighted boxes. Photos: 20 cm x 30 cm (each). Wooden boxes: 40 cm x 60 cm (each). Installation of 18 photos in 18 black boxes.
Statement
It started from Closer (2007) when Himiko Nguyen could not exhibit her nude photograph exhibition due to strict censorship on nudity especially female bodies. Come Out I hides photographs of Himiko capturing herself naked in black wooden boxes and demands the viewers to come closer to be able to see the photos through a hole. The photographs show Himiko in various position and emotion, mostly depicted herself in meditation or playful joy. Even though the public may see the nude images, it is almost impossible to recapture them thus they do not explicitly violate the moral code of censoring law. Come Out I becomes a strategic provocation to showcase sensitive content to the public and at the same time subtly teases the license system to exhibit art in Vietnam.
