Henry Nguyen is a Melbourne-based designer that specialises in set design. As a graduate from the Bachelor of Design (University of Melbourne), he has equipped himself with the ability to translate design concepts into real-life applications through visual storytelling. The academic journey at VCA, coupled with his participation in student theatre groups also help strengthening his understanding of various venues across Australia and globally. His practice in spatial design spans across multiple forms of live performances, from designing for theatre to spatially curating and directing movements for performing arts.
Design Statement:
Eurydice explores the journey of retrieving love, connection, and memories - that are ultimately intrinsic to humans. The set design takes after the meandering qualities of a maze, separating characters, but also standing as a test of what a person would do for love - whether romantic, or familial. Obscured, our perception of the Underworld, the design uses the concept of a maze as a symbolism for the liminal space between life and death where the occupants struggle to navigate their ways through the world. Heightening this atmosphere of whimsicality and confusion, objects and actions appearing and disappearing through the hedge plays into depriving the audience’s sense of directions and order. My design positions the audience to be complicit in this journey of navigating through the maze through manipulation of perspectives, allowing the audience to peer into the complicated relationships of humans.
Set design in work light.
Set design atmospherically lit, an extraction from storyboard.
Set design atmospherically lit, an extraction from storyboard.
Set design atmospherically lit, an extraction from storyboard.