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."The Propeller Group."
''SFMOMA on the Go''. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2014. Swan, Ethan
"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.

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 Upland is a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States, on the border with neighboring Los Angeles County. The municipality is located at an elevation of . As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population ...

) in 2008. Phunam studied sculpture and conservation in

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estim ...

and Chiang Mai, Thailand and at the Hanoi College of Fine Arts. Nguyen earned a BFA from the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Irvine, California, United States. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, U ...

. He met Lucero while they were completing their MFA from the

California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a Private university, private art school in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for ...

. Lucero earned a BFA from the

University of California, Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Riverside, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of Cali ...

."The Propeller Group."
''Guggenheim: Collection Online''. Guggenheim Museum, n.d. Web. 25 March. 2014. 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.Rose, Frank

''The New York Times''. Web. 23 Feb. 2018. 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'. The collective is dedicated to developing original creative content, bridging between fine art and mainstream media. The group draws inspiration from television, film, video, and the Internet.
Singapore Biennale 2011 Open House.
' Singapore: Singapore Art Museum, 2011. Print.Garcia, Cesar
"The Propeller Group."
In ''Made in L.A. 2012'', eds. Anne Ellegood et al. Munich: Prestel, May 2012. Print. 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 Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms, such as Text (literary theory), writing, Sound, audio, images, animations, or video, into a single presentation. T ...

and

mass communication Mass communication is the process of imparting and exchanging information through mass media to large population segments. It utilizes various forms of media as technology has made the dissemination of information more efficient. Primary examples o ...

. 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. They use mass media as a platform to combine seemingly contradictory phenomena: advertising and politics, history and future, and public and private. They often push their work back into the public sphere, using commodities as a form of public art. The collective cites

graffiti Graffiti (singular ''graffiti'', or ''graffito'' only in graffiti archeology) is writing or drawings made on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written "monikers" to elabor ...

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.Mehta, Diane
"The Propeller Group."
''BOMB Magazine''. BOMB, 21 February 2013. Web. 25 Mar. 2014. 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.Brooks, Katherine
"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.

TPG Films

The Propeller Group also functions as the full-service

video production Video production is the process of producing video content. It is the equivalent of filmmaking, but with video recorded either as analog signals on videotape, digitally in video tape or as computer files stored on optical discs, hard drives, SSDs, ...

company TPG Films. In addition to making music videos for Vietnamese pop singers Thanh Bui, Hoàng Thùy Linh,

Minh Hằng Lê Ngọc Minh Hằng (born June 22, 1987, in Ho Chi Minh City) better known as Minh Hằng, is a Vietnamese singer, actress and model. Lê Ngọc Minh Hằng stepped into her career at the age of 16 as a member of several girlgroup, and has be ...

, 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.Butt, Zoe. ''“
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.'' ''The distinction between The Propeller Group and TPG Films reflects the shifting relations between art and commerce. 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.

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''. 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. Their work has been included in ''No Country: Contemporary Art for South and Southeast Asia'' at the

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue between 88th and 89th Street (Manhattan), 89th Streets on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It hosts a permanent coll ...

, New York and ''The Ungovernables,''

New Museum The New Museum of Contemporary Art is a museum at 235 Bowery, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-nam ...

Triennial. The collective, under the identity TPG, has also exhibited at

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

Hammer Museum The Hammer Museum, which is affiliated with the University of California, Los Angeles, is an art museum and cultural center known for its artist-centric and progressive array of exhibitions and public programs. Founded in 1990 by the entrepreneur- ...

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern art, modern and contemporary art museum and nonprofit organization located in San Francisco, California. SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art ...

, Lombard Freid Gallery, Guangzhou Triennial, and Singapore Art Museum.

Films

* ''Spray It Don't Say It'' (2006) – documentary film * ''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 * ''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"THE PROPELLER GROUP – Jun 4–Nov 13, 2016."
''MCA: Exhibitions''. Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Web. 1 May 2017."The Propeller Group’s Gorgeous New Show Captures Beauty in Death and Ballistics."
''Artsy.net: Magazine''. Artsy.net. Web. 1 May 2017.

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)"The Propeller Group."
''Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative: Artists''. Guggenheim Museum, n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2014. "The Propeller Group on the Production of TVCC."
''Guggenheim: Video''. Guggenheim Museum, 22 Jul. 2013. Web. 25 Mar. 2014. Pearlman, Ellen
"The Ungovernables Flips the Bird."
''Hyperallergic: Sensitive to Art & Its Discontents''. Hyperallergic, 17 Feb. 2012. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.Chapman, Amy Howden
"Amy's Column 06 - 'Made in LA' Review."
''Chartwell''. The Chartwell Collection, 18 Jul. 2012. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.

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 "Strange Fruit" is a song written and composed by Abel Meeropol (under his pseudonym Lewis Allan) and recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939. The lyrics were drawn from a poem by Meeropol published in 1937. The song Protest song, protests the Lynch ...

, 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. * ''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.Carruthers, Ashley
"Moto-mobile, Saigon/Motomobility."
Galerie Quynh, April 2012. * ''Static Friction'' (2012): A five-part work, including ''1967'', ''Collision'', ''The Dream'', ''Portraits of Mechanical Reproduction'', and ''Chasing Inertia''. * ''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

References

Exhibition information
on AsiaArt Archive
The Propeller Group
on Lovely Stationery
The Propeller Group
on

Artsy (website) Artsy, formally known as Art.sy Inc is a New York City based online art brokerage. Its main business is developing and hosting website for numerous galleries as well as selling art for them. It utilizes a search engine and database to draw conne ...

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