Alison Nguyen

"Prior Occupants 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."

The High Line is a public park on the West Side of Manhattan, built on a historic, elevated rail line. High Line Art has commissioned and produced a wide array of artworks such as site-specific commissions, exhibitions, performances, video programs and interventions on the High Line. Nguyen's film, with its interest set at another public environment, weaves together infrastructure, memory and technology to consider the relationship between ruination and cultural production.

List image:

Prior Occupants , High Line Art, 2026 (installation view). Photography by Timothy Schenck (rendering).

Images:

1. Prior Occupants , 2026 (Film still). Restaging of photographer Rick Darke's 2002 photo of the High Line. Image courtesy Alison Nguyen.
2. Prior Occupants , 2026 (Film still). Containing original documentation of Bell Telecommunication Company's previously classified research at Columbia University's Rare Books and Manuscripts Library. Image courtesy Alison Nguyen.
3. Photo from Architect Richard Meier's early site visit to Bell Laboratories. Image courtesy Alison Nguyen.
4. Prior Occupants , 2026 (Film still). Staged vignette of present-day tech workers at Westbeth Artist Housing basement, previously used as Bell Laboratories Cafeteria. Image courtesy Alison Nguyen.