In this new body of work that includes photographs, textiles, prints, neon, video, sound, and objects, Hương Ngô engages with the French government’s surveillance archives of Vietnamese anticolonial organizer Nguyễn Thị Minh Khai (1910-1941). The role of performance in the construction of identity is at the forefront of Ngô’s investigation of this historical figure. Minh Khai’s constant crossing of borders – those of nation-states, ethnicities, languages, genders, and classes – via her numerous pseudonyms and disguises, was key to her invisibility to authorities yet renders her difficult to classify even today.

Press Release

A free publication featuring an essay written by Faye Gleisser, Assistant Professor of Art History in the Department of Art History at Indiana University Bloomington, will accompany the exhibition.