Alison Nguyen: "Prior Occupants" Artist Talk & Special Screening
About this Event
In her compelling new film for High Line Originals, co-commissioned with CHANEL Culture Fund, Nguyen explores the obscure nuclear history of Westbeth Artist Housing's building—the former headquarters for Bell Laboratories, a research facility tied to the development of communication technologies and, later, the atomic bomb. Inspired by a severed fragment of the original High Line freight rail left embedded in Westbeth's facade, and the High Line's own history of transformation, Nguyen reflects on the historical narratives that persist—and those quietly erased—within sites of adaptive reuse.
You're invited to the premiere of Nguyen’s new work Prior Occupants, co-commissioned by High Line Art and CHANEL Culture Fund. Following the screening, the artist will be joined in conversation by High Line Art Associate Curator, Taylor Zakarin, to discuss her practice and this exciting new work.
Part of High Line Channel, High Line Originals is High Line Art’s commissioning program for artists working in time-based media. This initiative invites emerging or underrecognized US-based artists, nominated by a trusted group of contemporary curators, to submit a proposal for a new video work that considers the context of the park in a meaningful way and will resonate with our diverse audience.
High Line Originals launched in 2019 with Tourmaline’s Salacia, which is now held in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection. Other past commissions include Onyeka Igwe’s The Miracle on George Green (2021), and Alicia Mersy’s NYC Wisdom (2024). In 2025, High Line Art partnered with CHANEL Culture Fund, and together co-commissioned Frank WANG Yefeng’s Groundless Flower – ཨ (2025).
About the Artist:
Alison Nguyen (b. 1986, Wilmington, Delaware) is a visual artist working across video, installation, performance, and sculpture. Using approaches of speculative fiction, documentary research, and embodied performance, Nguyen creates works that reconsider how narratives operate within the individual, the institution, the archive, and within the politics of cultural memory.
Nguyen lives and works in New York, New York. Solo screenings and exhibitions of her work have been presented at Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York, New York (2026); Art Basel Hong Kong Encounters, Hong Kong (2025); Murmurs, Los Angeles (2024); Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York (2023); MIT List Center for Visual Arts, Cambridge, Massachusetts (2023); and e-flux, Brooklyn, New York (2023). Nguyen has participated in group exhibitions and screenings at the Busan Biennial, Busan, South Korea (2026); Kunsthalle Mechelen, Mechelen, Belgium (2026); Vienna Secession, Vienna, Austria (2024); EMAP x Frieze Seoul Film, Seoul, South Korea (2024); National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea, Seoul, South Korea (2023); The Everson Museum, Syracuse, New York (2022); The Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt, New Zealand (2021); The International Studio & Curatorial Program, Brooklyn, New York (2019 & 2020); KAJE, Brooklyn, New York (2020); and Microscope Gallery, Brooklyn, New York (2017).
She has participated in film festivals around the world, including Oberhausen International Film Festival, International Shorts Online (2021); CPH:DOX, Copenhagen, Denmark (2021); Edinburgh International Film Festival, Edinburgh, United Kingdom (2021); Ann Arbor Film Festival, Ann Arbor, Michigan (2020); Open City Documentary Festival, London, United Kingdom (2019); Channels Festival International Biennial of Video Art, Melbourne, Australia (2019), and True/False Film Festival, Columbia, Missouri (2018); among others.
Nguyen has received residencies and fellowships from Pioneer Works, New York Foundation for the Arts Artist Fellowship in Film/Video, International Studio & Curatorial Program, The Institute of Electronic Arts, BRIC, and Squeaky Wheel Film and Media Art Center. She was a 2023-2024 Studio Fellow at the Whitney Independent Study Program.
Photo Consent:
By attending this event, you agree that photos and/or video footage of you may be taken, and you grant your permission to Friends of the High Line and its agents/licensees to use such photos/footage for promotional and other purposes.
Accessibility:
We encourage all persons with disabilities to attend. To request additional information regarding accessibility or accommodations at a program, please contact [email protected]. Program venues are accessible via wheelchair, and ASL interpretation can be arranged two weeks in advance. If you require registration information for this event in Spanish or Simplified Chinese, contact us at [email protected].
Data Privacy:
By signing up for this event, you agree that Friends of the High Line may use your information in accordance with the terms of our .
What happens if it rains?
The event will occur in a covered passage and will happen rain or shine.
Support:
Lead support for High Line Art comes from Amanda and Don Mullen. Major support is provided by The Brown Foundation, Inc. of Houston, Charina Endowment Fund, and Shelley Fox Aarons and Philip E. Aarons.
Major support of High Line Art’s digital infrastructure is provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Program support for High Line Art is provided by Sarah Arison, Suzanne Deal Booth, Charlotte Ford, Molly Gochman, and Joyce F. Menschel. Additional support is provided by Agnes Gund and Shane Akeroyd.
High Line Art is supported, in part, with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council, under the leadership of Speaker Julie Menin.
Major support for High Line Originals is provided by CHANEL Culture Fund.
About CHANEL Culture Fund:
CHANEL Culture Fund fosters a vibrant network of creators and innovators to advance the ideas that shape culture worldwide. Core programs include CHANEL’s Art Partners, nearly fifty international institutions whose leaders are supported in the development of ground-breaking, long-term initiatives that bring innovation to the cultural landscape. The CHANEL Next Prize celebrates artists and accelerates their future successes through access to resources and mentorship. And the podcast CHANEL Connects amplifies the voices of thought-leaders across disciplines, generations, and geographies—tackling the defining issues of our time.
From driving artistic innovation with technology at CalArts in Southern California to catalyzing creative freedom at scale at Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, from championing game-changing artists at the Venice Biennale to celebrating the brightest directors at the British Film Institute and opening China’s first public contemporary art library at the Power Station of Art in Shanghai, CHANEL Culture Fund extends a century of commitment to the arts and champions creative audacity for a better future.
Photo Credit:
Alison Nguyen, Prior Occupants, 2026 (still). Courtesy of the artist.
Where is it happening?
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