Wet Pictures, Degraded Pictures, Sad Pictures

I’m constructing pictures that build up a visual world for the tong choy rations and Hole Story to exist together in for printed and exhibition contexts. A visual world that conveys degradation from a repeated cycle of wetting and drying.

Photography has existed in my practice for the purposes work to accomplish a specific project. While I take many photographs in leisure, typically with a phone, I had never used these leisurely images in my art practice. These two modes of image production were distinct operations. Now, I have been able to work with my leisure images with these ‘degradation pictures’ (a temporary name). Leisurely images that are specific to the geography of my tong choy rations and Hole Story are selected and given a treatment.

This type of work constitutes a deeper intimacy between myself and the artwork because these ‘degradation pictures’ are sourced from moments when I wasn’t actively laboring. In other words, these are images from my normal daily life tied to a specific and relevant geography and time. These images are a product of life and curiosity while living and researching somewhere. They are low-fi and compressed jpegs. These are photographs that a person makes and are then repurposed as a material to make art with.

When I view a ‘degradation picture’ I recall the moment or the reason why I took the picture. It is not as sentimental as it sounds, these pictures are usually just some curiosity that I come across in mundane life. When the added treatment transforms these images into ‘degradation pictures’, I impose an anticipated underwater future from sea level rise in Southeast Asia. Tragedy occurs when present time mundanity meets a dreaded future.

In an odd way, I think this is a preparation for mourning.

Tong Choy Ration Prototyping

What would a contemporary ration or shelf-stable emergency food made of Tong Choy look like?

During the reunification of Vietnam and the country’s reconstruction, my family was rationed Tong Choy as a primary food source. The plant, carrying both high-nutrition and toxic elements from American ordnances, was easily cultivated in the wet lands of the newly formed Ho Chi Minh City. Today, the plant grows in wild abundance in many parts of the city.

Here, over 45 years after Reunification, I have been prototyping the form, packaging, and aesthetics of a ration for future emergencies. It is important that these rations look ‘handy’ as if any civilian could produce them, that the packaging is simple without specialized packaging and tools used to make today’s highest-end rations, like the USA MRE; and that they look like the could be sold by any street vendor.

Tong Choy Pigment Production 2

Pho Podcast with TY, Tiange, and Nikita

In this episode of podcast "Raw Boiled Congee 3: Revelations From Eating Pho" from Times Museum Guangzhou, Toronto-based artist Alvin Luong contributed his mother's Vietnamese beef pho recipe, and curators Tan Yue and Yang Tiange followed Alvin's teaching in Guangzhou and Beijing, respectively. The three cities from the south and the north have different ingredients that can be bought. They are made on the spot and improvised. The Pho that is made is mixed with the flavors of each place and everyone's imagination of pho. As Alvin said, "as long as you believe this is pho", and this confusion may be the essence of Pho. In the process of waiting for the beef bone broth to finishin cooking in the pot, we played the fine tradition of the art institution dubbed "Liao Zhai" and boiled the soup with friends to talk about Vietnam with our friends.

播客“生滚粥”作为以美食命名的栏目，终于失足哦不，涉足美食节目了。这一期在多伦多的艺术家梁超洪（Alvin Luong）贡献出妈妈的越南牛肉河粉配方，策展人谭悦和杨天歌分别在广州和北京跟随Alvin的教学来烹饪。三个天南地北的城市，能够买到的食材不尽相同，就地取材、即兴发挥，做出来的牛肉河粉也揉杂了各地的风味和各人对pho的想象。正如Alvin所说“as long as you believe this is pho”，而这种揉杂也许才正是Pho的精髓所在。在等待牛骨汤出锅的过程中，我们发挥被戏称为“聊斋”艺术机构的优良传统，和朋友们牛骨煮汤话越南