Tammy Nguyen layers techniques of painting and printmaking in works that examine the layered geopolitical histories of the world. References to historic events, the environment, and literature come together to form this vibrant painting from her series themed on Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy and politics in Asia at the time of the Cold War.

What Sin is Purged Here in the Circle Where We Are Standing draws from the second volume of Dante’s trilogy, Purgatory, where Dante and his guide, Virgil, arrive at Mt. Purgatory on the shores of Hell. Virgil appears in the painting as a bust in profile, along with figures of the leaders of Iraq and India greeting each other at the Bandung Conference of 1955, a gathering of African and Asian nations where they envisioned a future independent of the control of Western powers.

The head of a dinosaur appears at right, intended to suggest the looming threat of nuclear war in the aftermath of World War II. It recalls Godzilla, the radiation-warped monster that first appeared on Japanese screens in 1954. With the coiling, vine-like shapes of ancient oaks and ferns found throughout the painting, it signifies the depth of millions of years of time that preceded the mid-twentieth century and our current moment.

Image Description: Combinations of lines and shapes in black, off-white, and a variety of bright colors overlap, shifting in and out of focus to reveal a profile view of a person wearing draped garments with a wreath of leaves resting on their head (at center); a theropod dinosaur, possibly a Tyrannosaurus rex, mouth wide open (at right); and a pair of men—one in a dark suit and eyeglasses holding a roll of papers in his right hand, and one in white, draped garments—shaking hands (at left). The background is a gradient that shifts from blue to warm peaches and yellows. Layers of branches, leaves, buds, and palm fronds merge with the figures.