Tricia Nguyen is the founder of Wintercearig Project, a project that is creating awareness on mental health in Vietnam through the arts. A friend and collaborator of Mark Your Wall and Tò Mò, today we are glad to have her share a little about her project and her take on MARK YOUR WALL Color Palette #03 as we welcome the beginning of the new year.
Hi Tricia, tell us more about Wintercearig.
It started as a personal project in 2017 with a dance performance and art exhibition with the support of my friends to tell my own struggle with mental issues. With small one-off art workshops at the end of the exhibition, for the participants to try and see how art can support their mental wellbeing, as it did for me.
During the first few years of exhibitions and performances by artists, it felt that there was a barrier between the art, the artists and the viewer. So I decided to change the system, making the participants the artists and exhibit their work, to show everyone that anyone can be an artist, to show that we all have the courage within us, to be vulnerable, to be brave to tell our stories in a non-verbal way. It soon evolved into a more community based project as I understand the growing needs for mental support in the country. W; then became weekly workshops for the youth to participate in. With workshops such as art, theatre, sound, yoga and movement.
Alongside this, we also do a satellite event once every year, such as The Fair, to showcase the different mediums of our workshops to the general public and more focused topics such as Consent and Men’s Mental Health for students.
How does Art Help you to Heal and Thrive as a human being?
As a relatively introverted person, I find that when I dance or create a piece of art, it helps me to overcome many of my anxieties - especially with ballet, it gives me structure and motivation, helping me to focus on the present rather than the past. At the same time, telling my stories and being vulnerable, through my movements or, as in painting, the colors that I choose, the brushstrokes that I use. It tells a story of my inner struggles, and by putting it out there, I let it out of myself, that feeling of a heavy burden weighing me down.
Art offers a more accessible approach to recognize mental issues and treat them with more compassion. It removes the first layer of burden such as judgment. But for this to be a successful journey, we have to work hard to support it, by providing a lot of care and support from our mental health service providers, our local therapists and projects like W; to continue to push for change. We need to develop and increase the demands for better and more mental health support from our health providers, for changes that we want to make, to inform the public about this topic through the arts and influence our attitudes and beliefs towards the problem. By having workshops and exhibitions, it encourages us to open up in a nonverbal way, thus, catering to our needs of support and understanding of mental health.
In hope that this will inspire everyone to engage in the conversation, participate and to know that your ideas and creativity are valuable. To encourage all of us to celebrate and accept who we are, and to feel impassioned by what is magical inside of us - to create something beautiful as well as to improve our well-being, inside and out. Small personal changes and acceptance within ourselves can only fuel a larger change to society as a whole.
What inspired you when you first laid eyes on MARK YOUR WALL Color Palette #03?
The color blue was the first color of the W; project in 2017. It represents the universe, the beginning, the start of a journey to self acceptance and understanding.
As it is the first color (left to right) on the color palette and it ended with terracotta orange, which was the last year’s theme: Earth, a place of grounding. It shows the different colors in between, as to different stories one tells of their journey. But it doesn’t just end there, we still have to continue our journey to better ourselves and the palette will continue to change and grow.
“It is good to have an end to journey forward, but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” - Ernest Hemingway
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𝘈𝘳𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦, 𝘸𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 #𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘦, #𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 #𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘍𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘻𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘸𝘸.𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮
𝙈𝘼𝙍𝙆 𝙔𝙊𝙐𝙍 𝙒𝘼𝙇𝙇
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