Pictured: Mother! by Tammy Nguyen. Photo by Daniel Kukla.

Supposedly, James Joyce once claimed that, if it took him seven years to write Ulysses, it should take people seven years to read it. Tammy Nguyen, the internationally acclaimed multimedia artist behind Tammy Nguyen: Timaeus and the Nations, currently on dizzying display at Sarasota Art Museum, may follow a similar philosophy.

Through a densely interwoven body of seven paintings, 23 tapestries, a massive artist book in three parts and original music, the exhibition explores everything from Platonic meditations on creation and order to notions of national identity, fractal geometry, and the curious maritime practice known as “flags of convenience,” by which one nation takes advantage of friendly regulations (or lack thereof) by flying another nation’s flag at sea.

The paintings, large-scale, ornate, busy bordering on chaotic. Abstract shapes and flares of neon color abut strange alien plants, moons and stars. A flock of metal doves makes a spiral. Unexplained numbers, disconnected words, isolated musical notation float in ghostly script and hand-carved rubber stamps leave blocks of fractal pattern. Emerging from these scenes of chaos, always a central figure. Here an American general, there a British queen. Two are pirates. All represent some form of order enforced on the seeming chaos of the world. None would quite agree on its exact shape.

Hanging between the paintings, 23 embroidered tapestries challenge ideas of national identity, pairing two countries offering “flags of convenience” and blending their anthems into one, the artist ultimately enforcing her own musical order on what results. The lyrics and musical notation correspond to those found on the paintings, as do various fractal images, and the iconographic connections begin to build. A book by the artist, inaccessible behind glass and raising more questions than it answers, sits like an unreachable Rosetta Stone in the middle.

Highly esoteric but not quite inscrutable, the show is a lot to take in. SAM Senior Curator Dr. Rangsook Yoon admits as much, which is why she wrote a 1500-word essay to help visitors navigate the finer details. Still, she insists audiences should not be intimidated.

“Even if you’re not getting into all of these layers,” she says, “you can enjoy the incredible compositions Tammy Nguyen creates. Visually, it’s stunning, engaging.

“And more than anything, I want people to see the incredible imagination this artist has.”

Currently on display at Sarasota Art Museum, Tammy Nguyen: Timaeus and the Nations runs through January 19. Tours are available Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 11am. 

Pictured: Mother! by Tammy Nguyen. Photo by Daniel Kukla.