Vietnamese Here: Contemporary Art & Reflections – by Anh Nguyen

History and Memory offer a space of play and wonder for artists in diaspora. Vietnamese Here exhibits the contemporary works of four visual artists as well as playwrights and authors of Vietnamese heritage, who enjoy that space in Australia.

[Artists-Presenters: Nadia Rhook, Dominic Golding, Hoa Pham, Anh Nguyen, Hoang Nguyen, Naomi Ngo, Chi Vu]

These works engage with the spaces in memory, placing the past in the present, to reflect the myriad of diasporic experiences that sit at odds with what mainstream media represents as just another refugee or boat person story.

Cultural identity politics becomes peripheral in these works, as the artists push upon their relationship with, and conception of, Vietnamese heritage. These cultivations from the ashes in Australia become the soil for a flourishing of art and literature that is to come.

[Anh Nguyen, University of Melbourne, and Nadia Rhook, La Trobe University, co-curators]

We would like to especially thank Joy Damousi for her opening remarks and support of the this exhibition that grew out of Anh Nguyen’s research and oral history interviews, which is a part of the ARC Kathleen Fitzpatrick Laureate Fellowship.

[ARC Kathleen Fitzpatrick Laureate Fellowship team: Anh Nguyen, Sarah Green, Niro Kandasamy, Joy Damousi]

The launch was a great celebratory evening of shared stories and conversations about the Vietnamese community and their contribution to the public conversation on Australian immigration.

For more information about the artists and writers, please visit their websites:

Phuong Ngo, http://www.pthngo.com/
Hoang Tran Nguyen, http://hoangtrannguyen.com/Hoang_Tran_Nguyen.html

Naomi Ngo, https://1drv.ms/f/s!AuziUMRStgpjg5ccpA8sfczAQXjIBA

Dominic Golding, http://peril.com.au/back-editions/edition1213/qa-dominic-golding/

Hoa Pham, http://www.spinifexpress.com.au/Bookstore/author/id=150

Chi Vu, http://chi-vu.com/

*Special thanks to Jennifer Tran from Dual Identity Leadership Program for modeling Phuong Ngo’s Ao dia and Lulu’s Café and Gallery, North Melbourne.