Jessica TranVo is a mixed media collage artist.

Jessica TranVo is a mixed media artist who has exhibited and published digital and analog collages. She graduated from Bridgewater State in 2014 with two bachelor's degrees in English Literature and Fine Arts, and a minor in Art History. Her artistic foundation is in acrylic and oil painting on canvas and continues today with mixed media. She uses both physical and digital collage to combine painting gestures and historical research, borrowing inspiration from miniaturists. As an artist, she explores liminal, weird, saccharine, and pensive spaces shaped by her bilingual, queer, and mixed-race Vietnamese American identity through paint and collage. Her most recent project was a digital collage fellowship and a publication of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, collaged by an international group of artists. She has exhibited works at the San Francisco Public Library, Pao Arts Center, Cambridge Arts’ Canal Gallery, MIT Hayden Library, Rainbow Lounge, and designed covers for at least two poetry books so far. Instagram @ennuiorsomething

en·nui /änˈwē/ (noun) ennui,

1. Dictionary: a feeling of utter weariness and discontent; a feeling of being tired, bored, an existential dissatisfaction

2. From Old French enui, from ennuyer, to annoy, bore. The Old French verb anoier also gave rise to a noun, variously spelled enui and annui, meaning "chagrin, sadness." The Modern French form of this noun, ennui, came to mean "boredom, lassitude," and it was with this sense that the word was borrowed into English in the 1700s.

3. In translation: Chán chường or buồn bực. The first word, if translated literally into its two parts, is boredom with “school” or life as an endless school; listlessness and restlessness that come from repeated disappointments. Two, is sad (the first word on its own) and frustrated or upset, possibly to tears (the second). Neither really completes the picture for me of an indolent, Vietnamese Oscar Wilde on their hammock, sighing for sport and passively eavesdropping.

4. Edward Gorey: “N is for Neville who died of ennui”; Sylvia Plath: “Ennui: Tea leaves thwart those who court catastrophe…”

ôr (conjunction) ˈsəmˌTHiNG/ (pronoun) or something,

1. Tumblr: “ennui-or-something” was a personal blog used to collect memes & pictures before I realized collecting art and archived images could lead to curation, collage, and mixed media: https://ennui-or-something.tumblr.com

2. A postcolonial reclamation. “From the latter half of the 19th century onwards, the French colonial authorities discouraged or simply banned the use of classical Chinese, and promoted the use of the Vietnamese alphabet, which they viewed as a stepping stone toward learning French.” Source: Chữ Nôm. Not knowing French, Chinese, or Japanese fluently, my heritage fluency (and illiteracy) in Vietnamese is a testament to the melting pot and centuries of colonization of Vietnam, Indochina, Cochinchina, Tonkin, Annam, or the many identities that Vietnam has had over the centuries. (Note: My family is Nam; central highland, southern central, but mostly southern by dialect.) By adopting one ghost, I’m also gesturing to the other ghosts.

3. (or something) Jessica Thúy Ngân TranVo is my full name.

   1. “Jessica” is an english name that etymologically derives from either Hebrew (Iscah, יִסְכָּה Yīskā); Greek (Ἰεσχά); or Shakespearean-origin (The Merchant of Venice, written 1596-98). In Bablyonian Aramaic, it means “to see.” Jessica is a baby name that was popular in the late 20th century.

   2. When I was studying in Ireland, the professor went Scottish Gaelic for my translated name: Neasa or Nessie, like the Loch Ness Monster.

   3. Thúy Ngân is my given Vietnamese name. “Thúy” means water or the element mercury; quicksilver. “Ngân” means silver or plangency: to vibrate, to resound; Mèng Sây is a “middle name” my grandmother gave me from a serial about a wandering heroine.

   4. My parents were born in 1960s (Dad) and 1970s (Mom) in Vietnam. The Vietnam War ran from November 1, 1955 – April 30, 1975. They met after immigrating as refugees in the 1980-90s on the Amerasian Homecoming Act. I am mixed, but grew up in a Vietnamese-speaking household. My American half is made up of public school education, television, and the early 2000’s internet.

   Addendum: I am an artist with a day job (that is still creative). I work as an events and communications administrator in higher education. I have worked in administration, operations, marketing, and graphic design for over a decade! I will still freelance and/or take commissions. I just want to break this art-world gatekeeping and model-minority grift. The struggle is still real! https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicatv/