Artist Talk: July 18, 2026, No Place Like Home III, SLQS Gallery & White Chapel Backyard Biennial, London, UK

London, UK
July 18, 2026
SLQS Gallery & Whitechapel Backyard Biennial: East

An artist talk that I gave on July 18, 2026. The talk focuses on two bodies of work, Ration Market and Hole Story, that are part of the group exhibition No Place Like Home III curated by artists KV Duong and Hoa Dung Clerget, at SLQS Gallery for the Whitechapel Backyard Biennial in London, UK.

The video was filmed by KV Duong and extends into Q&A led by Hoa and includes fellow exhibiting artist Hiền Hoang. Making a welcomed appearance was the curator Maya Wilson Sanchez, who originally commissioned Ration Market Special for her public art project, I Am Land, at Toronto’s Union Station in 2022. Maya’s close proximity to the work, and our friendship, brought a level of depth to the Q&A that benefited the overall discussion as we could get deeply into the issues of substance regarding my artworks.

Tunnel Rats and Sewer Holes (Hole Story Sketch)

Some video tests using cheap xerox prints and diptych strategies to combine images of “tunnel rats” and exposed sewage holes around my family home on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City. “Tunnel Rats” were often shorter American troops who crawled thru underground tunnel systems in search of Vietnamese guerrillas who built the tunnels to evade aerial assaults. The sewage holes are a result of a contemporary botched real estate development on land that formally trained guerrillas to fight the French and American colonizers.

Modeling the Phong Phú Commune in Hole Story

Over the course of 2020 and 2021 I have been learning 3D modeling to supplement my camera-based studio practice. These models will supplement camera-based footage in Hole Story. The models produce an uncanny appearance as camera-based footage, which is captured with without depth, is warped and modelled into a 3D landscape that does have depth and its own parallax.

Work-in-progress model of the Phong Phú Commune (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam), image still from computer rendering, 2021.