‘Mimi Nails’ is a space, a performance, and a multimedia installation; which memorializes my mothers’ first nail salon that was affectionately named after me. I’ve always been asked the question, ‘why are there so many Vietnamese owned nail salons?’. A question that prompted me to start my research of my community. This body of work chronicles my family’s story and many other Vietnamese refugees' emigrating to America as a result of the Vietnam war. The Vietnamese community found a niche within the nail salon industry as a means to survive and provide for family back home. As a result, Vietnamese owned nail salons flourished across the U.S, inadvertently dominating the industry. As a child, I grew up in the nail salon and have many fond memories of what I considered to be my second home. Walking to the nail salon after school, spending the entire day playing with my sister while my mother is simultaneously working and taking care of us. Within the diaspora, the Vietnamese held strong to their culture and traditions that helped shape my identity as a first-generation Vietnamese American.
This body of work emulates my mothers first nail salon, ‘Mimi Nails’ in order to highlight the Vietnamese communities long standing histories of war, colonization, and migration. Paintings recall nostalgic memories by depicting intimate moments that an outsider normally wouldn’t have access to. The transaction of the service in and outside of the salon. The sculptures are a reappropriation of familiar materials that are commonly used in the nail salon. Objects like nail polish bottles, nail files, buffers, and nail color swatches are digitally fabricated with archival images. The pieces are an extension of Vietnamese life within America.
‘Mimi Nails’ shifts the gaze inwards and decenters the patron to the Vietnamese worker. A laborious job providing luxury services that is often looked down upon, ‘Mimi Nails’ redirects that stigma by celebrating the Vietnamese community through representation. By calling attention to the successes found within a niche and putting the invisible Vietnamese worker in the forefront, highlighting the intimate relationships and elements of their everyday life within the salon.
