Resurrection

2025

Fallen 70-year-old, 20-meter-tall Nacre tree (Typhoon Yagi), stainless steel, quartz

H 900cm x ф 200cm

A site-specific installation

From Demise to Rebirth

On September 7th, 2024, Typhoon Yagi swept through Hanoi, leaving behind heavy devastation. Among its many losses was a 70-year-old nacre tree, nearly 20 meters tall, uprooted and broken by the storm.

In the midst of this destruction, artist Tia-Thuy Nguyen saw a different story — one of renewal. Moved by the silent beauty of time and history etched into the fallen trunk, she created ‘Resurrection’: an artwork that affirms falling is not the end. From what appeared to wither, a new form is reborn — carrying within it a quiet energy, a pulse of life, and the possibility of transformation.

“Though the tree no longer stands, its soul lingers — in light, in air, in memory. Energy is never lost. The rhythm of life endures beyond any single act of destruction.”

Tia-Thuy Nguyen

Rugged Beginnings, Radiant Becoming

The process begins with thick stainless steel plates, each hand-hammered to follow the natural curvature of the fallen tree. These plates are then tightly mounted, alternating between smooth surfaces and rough knots that echo the original bark. Once completed, they form an iridescent skin — a reflective shell that responds to light, shimmering with each shift of the day.

This metal layer serves both as the sculpture’s frame and the vessel of its new life.

Every surface was meticulously considered. With this devotion, Tia-Thuy Nguyen and her collaborators confront the quiet desolation of decay — not to preserve the past, but to let it transform. In her words, the goal is to “capture the movements of light and shadow,” so the work is never static, always alive, always becoming.

The branches are shaped to evoke the natural curves and lush fullness of a living tree. Thousands of shimmering steel leaves and vibrant quartz “flowers” glisten in the sunlight — a chorus of light and motion.

Over time, the quartz is believed to absorb universal energy, gently radiating it back into the space. This quiet circulation of energy offers a sense of calm, softening the mind and dissolving the weight of negative emotion.

Light: The playful partner

Light, in a moment of unintentional grace, becomes part of Tia-Thuy Nguyen’s quiet game.

Each stainless steel leaf, each quartz “flower” catches and scatters the sun — shimmering anew with every passing ray.

This game plays in a continuous loop: day after day, never the same.

No two moments are ever identical.

With a gentle mischievousness and refined intuition, Tia-Thuy Nguyen has choreographed a performance of nature — a living work powered not by machines, but by the endless rhythm of the universe.

And the show never ends.

Trees do not hold onto their leaves. With each season, they let go — not as loss, but as rhythm. In that falling, there is a law: everything must pass to become something new.