Art Labor to Bring Vietnamese Highlands to Hong Kong
The Ho Chi Minh-based collective has worked with the indigenous Jrai community for almost a decade. An upcoming exhibition at Para Site is their first dedicated institutional show.
Siu Huel, Untitled (2024). Wooden sculpture. Courtesy of the artist. Commissioned by Para Site and T:>Works.
Hong Kong art space Para Site will present an exhibition by Vietnamese collective Art Labor from 17 August to 24 November 2024.
Art Labor is a trio formed in 2012 by Thao Nguyen Phan, Truong Cong Tung, and Arlette Quynh-Anh Tran. Instead of creating individual works, or exhibitions, they favour multi-year projects that result in 'a rhizome of projects and ideas'.
Since 2016 Art Labor has been working closely with the Jrai Community in Vietnam's Central Highlands.
'There are many resonances with Para Site's own history of collective models of collaborating,' said Para Site curator Celia Ho.
'Normally, exhibitions come and go, then we move onto something else,' she continued. 'Yet, Art Labor's process is more akin to an ongoing open-ended journey. Along this journey, their way of collaborating with people inside and outside of the visual arts discipline is very generative.'
The exhibition, titled Cloud Chamber, will bring together wood-carved sculptures and musical instruments alongside moving image, installation, drawings, and photographs to contest prejudiced portrayals of Vietnam's Central Highlands.
Historically derided as a savage place filled with tigers, poisoned water, and malevolent spirits, the area has since been impacted by outside forces including missionary activity, war, and industrialisation.
'The exhibition is a gathering of different perspectives to reflect on the social and environmental changes of Vietnam's Central Highlands,' Ho explained.
It 'serves as a bridge, connecting the relatable struggles of dispossession in other locales in Hong Kong and beyond.' —[O]
