My work recalls earlier episodes from my life that are associated with the profound political and social changes that my country, Vietnam, has experienced during my lifetime. It engages the despair and suffering of those who lived through a century of colonial rule and a generation or more of war, as well as their hopes for a better future. Often these themes are combined into installations that feature Vietnamese symbols or familiar objects from daily life that play as metaphors for an entangled system. The installations are usually incorporated into my video/performance, as they create environments for my videos/performances or background for my projections.
Although the Vietnamese (and my) experience has been extreme, it nevertheless elicits the universal human themes of spirituality, exile, conflict, history, longing and despair, triumph and tribulation, and moments, however fleeting, of peace.