2021 RECIPIENT OF THE GEORGES MORA FELLOWSHIP

Phuong Ngo is a Vietnamese-Australian artist and curator living and working in Naarm (Melbourne). He is currently co-director of Hyphenated Projects with Nikki Lam, and curator at large at the Substation. His practice is concerned with the interpretation of history, memory and place, and how it impacts individual and collective identity of the Vietnamese diaspora. Through an archival process rooted in a conceptual practice, he seeks to find linkages between culture, politics and oral histories and historic events. Ngo’s collaborative practice with Hwafern Quach, Slippage, examines the cycles of history in conjunction with current geopolitical and economic issues through the lens of vernacular cultures, artifacts and language. Taking their Vietnamese and Chinese ancestry as a starting point and foregrounding their work in the personal, Slippage utlises ceramics as a medium to further critique issues closely linked to historic and contemporary forms of imperialism and global politics. His notable exhibitions include, APT10, QAGOMA (2021); Drunken Swine, First Draft (2019); Expansionism V, Bendigo Art Gallery (2019); Article 14.1, Sydney Festival & MCA (2019); Primavera, MCA (2018); New Histories, Bendigo Art Gallery (2018); Conflicted: Works from the Vietnam Archive Project, The Substation (2017); Article 14.1, Next Wave Festival (2014); Melbourne Now, National Gallery of Victoria (2013); Domino Theory, Centre for Contemporary Photography (2012).