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Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba

Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas: Battle of Easel Point - Memorial Project Okinawa, 2003

Single-channel video projection
Approx. 15 min , Color, Sound
Produced by: Mizuma Art, Tokyo and Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba with assistance from MACRO (Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Roma) and Mori Art Museum, Tokyo

Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas: Battle of Easel Point – Memorial Project Okinawa is part of Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba's 2003 Memorial Project on the Vietnam War – all videos shot under-water. The film refers to Okinawa both as an important battle site during World War II and as a training ground for American troops during the Vietnam War; fifty divers, swimming in groups underwater, seem to conduct military exercises that culminate in their painting stars on fifty red canvases. The narration is supported by a vivid sound track. Composed by Nguyen-Hatsushiba with Quoc Bao, a Vietnamese pop-music composer, the remix of James Bond movie themes suggests action and excitement, thus ironically commenting on the tradition of glorifying war heroes. Portraying the yellow star seems to indicate a search for national identity, a need for restoring a lost dignity. But what comes out of this unsettling painting session has the face of the old enemy. The "other" is America – not just in its military might but in its cultural hegemony, whether in movies or painting. The artist indicates that there is no way out of that embrace: The mirror image of the Vietnamese will be forever blurred with the faces of America.

*1968 Tokyo, Japan