{"product_id":"o-g6fe22ee2","title":"O","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eO\u003c\/em\u003e, artist and writer Tammy Nguyen returns to Vietnam to visit the caves of the Phong Nha Karst. This journey into the Karst's \"wind-carved teeth\" resounds with the traditional songs of Nguyen's guides, whose melodies produce the O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O that echoes through narratives woven together around it as a visual and sonic spine: the story of Nguyen's Uncle Van, an opportunistic businessman who traded in Vietnamese porcelain vessels; her coming-of-age as a child with missing teeth, and the material and mineral histories of the veneers that eventually completed her \"American Smile\"; the plastic paradise of the man-made island of Forest City, a simulacrum of natural beauty kept uncannily bright and lush by the flow of global investment capital; and, behind it all, a retelling of Plato's Allegory of the Cave that supplies what the original parable lacked: an understanding of fantasy's role in the construction of a sublime. In \u003cem\u003eO\u003c\/em\u003e's anti-allegory, the personal and geopolitical sit uncomfortably alongside one another. The shape of a bowl becomes the mouth of a cave. The uncanny naturalism of Nguyen's zirconium veneers reflect Forest City's manicured paradise. What emerges is a kaleidoscopic meditation on the play of language across scales: how it rebounds between our stories of self and the semantic regimes of global capital alike.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLiterary Nonfiction. Asian \u0026amp; Asian American Studies. Women's Studies. Art. Hybrid.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"None","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46480187097298,"sku":"9781946433916","price":39.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0655\/8980\/5233\/files\/1_60579d10-0973-4a6e-bd5d-81a1275c1374.jpg?v=1762445837","url":"https:\/\/www.indigo.ca\/products\/o-g6fe22ee2","provider":"Indigo","version":"1.0","type":"link"}