Rosa Nguyen’s site-specific glass and ceramic installations are strongly influenced by her interest in gardening and Ikebana, the Japanese discipline of flower arranging.
The large-scale installation Sanctuary (2014), which was on display at Touchstones Rochdale as part of the Asia Triennial Manchester (2014), takes particular inspiration from Japanese Zen dry landscape gardens. Sanctuary comprises multiple ceramic and glass objects interconnected with natural materials such as dried plants and tree branches.
Touchstones Rochdale selected a larger glass piece and a group of smaller ceramic vessels - Stomach form (honey); Kidney form (white); Nut (grey white); Flower head (yellow); Nut (grey white); Bladder form (black and white) from the larger installation to acquire through the Contemporary Art Society’s Omega Fund. This enabled the museum to construct a variety of displays using Nguyen’s work in the future and connects with the artist’s practice to re-present existing objects in new installations.
The acquisition furthers the museum's ambitions to collect across a range of different media and Nguyen's other piece Nose and Tail Form (2012) is the first significant contemporary glass object to enter the collection. The glass and colourful ceramic pieces also fulfil the museum’s aim to collect work that focuses on colour and the absence of colour. In this respect, the selected vessels from Nguyen’s installation link well with a number of paintings, prints and drawings in the fine art collection at Touchstones Rochdale, which depict landscapes, gardens and the natural environment.
