“I am a tree in your life”: Artist Talkback with Bao Nguyen (in conversation with Kathy O’Dell)

“A tree needs you. It needs you to remind it how to grow as a tree. Come play with this tree to help it remember. Before the tree disappears. Before you disappear.”

These are the words that advertise Bao Nguyen’s one-on-one performance, happening in the Ivy Bookshop gardens during October and November. This performance brings to life a tree spirit from our gardens and asks audience members to join in a spirit of play.

On November 16, Bao will speak on the Ivy’s back patio in conversation with Kathy O’Dell, illuminating some of the insights and behind-the-scenes workings of this highly thoughtful, intentional experience. There’s no need to have seen the performance to attend the talk. We hope you will join us for this chance to hear from one of Baltimore’s most exciting artists.

RSVP Here!

​​Bao Nguyen (they/them) is an experimental vocalist and performance artist born in Vietnam and based in Baltimore. Incorporating improvised singing, audience participation and movement, Bao creates site-specific, one-on-one and small group performances in natural landscapes and sacred spaces to connect the audience’s life story into nature’s life cycle.

Bao completed their BFA at Maryland Institute College of Art and is pursuing their MFA at University of Maryland, Baltimore County. They have exhibited in the U.S and abroad, including shows at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and Ewha Woman University, Korea. In 2022, they were awarded the Judson-Morrissey Excellence in New Media Award from the New Media Caucus. Bao recently completed their residency at Yale Norfolk Summer School of Art.

Kathy O’Dell is an art historian and critic of modern and contemporary art, with a focus on performance art, public art, issues of violence, and the importance of the esoteric. Author of the acclaimed book Contract with the Skin: Masochism, Performance Art, and the 1970s, she is currently working on a book titled Dot: A Small History of a Big Point. She was one of the co-founders of Link: A Critical Journal on the Arts in Baltimore and the World, published 1996-2005, and is now an arts writer for BmoreArt, for which she writes a regular online column on public art, plus other assigned articles, including one in the magazine’s latest print issue, which launched on November 7 – BmoreArt 18: Wellness. Dr. O’Dell taught art history and writing at UMBC for 30 years, is the former Chair of the Maryland Public Art Commission, and presently sits on the boards of the Catonsville Arts District, Baltimore County Arts Guild, and Maryland Art Place.