Ellipse, a series of wall works made of gold leaf printed on metal, introduces the concept of nhạc vàng, or “yellow music”. Following the American War in Vietnam, bolero was banned for its sentimentality and romantic lyricism. Yet it continued to survive underground, circulating through diasporic cassette tapes and transnational cabarets. Nguyen printed the lyrics of these songs found in censorship documents onto solid aluminum plaques, creating a counter-archive for memories that nearly disappeared.

In the 10-channel video installation Perforation, Ellipse V01, multiple screens move in a ghostly choreography, reflecting on the passage of time and the ways cultural memory is shaped through it. In footage of the artist shooting an arrow across a dark city skyline, the arrow remains suspended in a perpetual state of arrival and departure, endlessly striking its unseen target. Throughout the installation, melodies of bolero periodically surge across multiple channels, aligning disparate images into a shared emotional frequency.