The 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT10) Catalogue

Artists The 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art 104 Phuong Ngo and Sheila Ngoc Pham Untitled No. 30 (Collaborative racist paintings) (detail) 2020 Synthetic polymer paint and mixed media on plywood boards / Diptych: 25.4 x 40.6cm Phuong Ngo and Michelle Hamer Untitled No. 45 (Collaborative racist paintings) (detail) 2020 Synthetic polymer paint and mixed media on plywood boards / Diptych: 25.4 x 40.6cm (opposite, left to right) Phuong Ngo and Vipoo Srivilasa Untitled No. 35 (Collaborative racist paintings) (detail) 2021 Synthetic polymer paint and mixed media on plywood boards / Diptych: 25.4 x 40.6cm Phuong Ngo and Ryan Presley Untitled No. 5 (Collaborative racist paintings) (detail) 2020 Synthetic polymer paint and mixed media on plywood boards / Diptych: 25.4 x 40.6cm Courtesy: The artists / This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body, and is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria Phuong Ngo is well-known for his archival projects, ranging from large-scale photographic installations to multi-day performances; however, his dedication to collaboration is just as central to his work. Since 2018, Ngo has maintained a creative practice with Hwafern Quach under the moniker Slippage, with the duo critiquing historic and contemporary forms of imperialism and global politics through the lenses of their respective cultures, artefacts and languages. 1 Hyphenated Projects, a community-based endeavour that Ngo co- directs with Nikki Lam, is a platform that provides support to artists, producers and researchers via studio residencies and development programs. 2 While these partnerships shed light on unresolved histories and promote artistic practices historically left out of dominant cultural narratives in Australia, what Ngo has attempted in ‘Collaborative racist paintings’ is his most expansive cooperative project to date. The artwork in the form that it takes in APT10 is the result of a slow, organic process that evolved from existing work, and developed during a time of distance and disruption. In early 2020, I worked with Ngo in the presentation of his series ‘Lost and Found’ 2019 in the ‘National Photography Prize’ at Murray Art Museum Albury (MAMA). During the install, he startled me by asking for two walls to be painted in colours from a well- My proud posting of a photo of my ‘very own Phuong Ngo painting’ on Instagram spurred requests from friends. Little did we know, this action would result in the now formidable project ‘Collaborative racist paintings’. Ngo began the process of sending his peers two wooden panels painted in their selection of ‘Oriental’ colours, as a way to stay connected to personal networks during a time of isolation. Participants were given instructions on how to source colonial postcards to complete their work, and this soon expanded, with people adding a range of other objects and images of personal significance to their diptych. Amounting to 100 artworks and counting, these paintings belong to Ngo’s collaborators, rather than to him. Intentionally located across the country, the dispersal of the series complicates the way the works are loaned, exhibited and situated within institutions. While it is exhilarating to see an artist deliberately agitate institutional processes, it is also important to highlight the fact that Ngo, by virtue of acknowledging all co-authors, is sharing the power of authorship with them. This decision has given his collaborators agency over their racist painting, allowing them to shape their own narratives, and to opt in or out of exhibiting their work in any given context. In the case of APT10, the loan of the artworks involved close negotiation, open dialogue and conflict resolution between Ngo and his co-authors, and with staff at QAGOMA who have facilitated the process. The project thus shows us that collaboration can indeed exist as more than just an aesthetic method. Phuong Ngo’s ‘Collaborative racist paintings’ is a multilayered artwork that is political yet nuanced; interweaving elements of colonial histories and contemporary racism, and subverting the concepts of solo authorship, power and the processes that govern the arts. The series is an extension of Ngo’s practice, which seeks to establish links between history, culture and politics today, and exemplifies his contribution to community as an agitator and cultural leader. Nanette Orly known paint brand, 'Pale Oriental’ and ‘Oriental Princess’. I was surprised not because of the jarring colour combination, but by the audacious names of the colours. In fact, a total of seven ‘Oriental’ colours exist in the range — Oriental Bay, Oriental Blush, Oriental Blush Half, Oriental Blush Quarter, Oriental Princess, Oriental Rose and Pale Oriental — a palette that has come to inform several of Ngo’s subsequent works. In March 2020, during one of Melbourne’s pandemic-induced lockdowns, and while Asian hate crimes were on the rise across Australia and elsewhere, 3 Ngo began work on the series ‘Racist paintings’ as a way to reconcile the seven pots of ‘Oriental’ paint in his home. It is no coincidence that the series was developed when the realities of being ‘oriental’ were being exposed. The geometric patterns that Ngo painted onto wooden panels in these hues represent the encaustic tiles that French colonists brought to Vietnam during a period of imperial expansion and empire building, and the tiling is still found in colonial buildings throughout the country. Affixed to these hard-edge paintings are French colonial postcards, synonymous with Ngo’s past archival work. As a way to repurpose unused panels from the series, he decided to give them away. In the midst of a national lockdown, I received a single panel in the mail painted in variants of Oriental Blush. Endnotes 1 Slippage , <https://www.slippage.com.au/> , viewed April 2021. ‘Phuong Ngo’, The Substation , <https://thesubstation.org.au/artist/ phuong-ngo>, viewed June 2021. 2 Hyphenated Projects , <https://www.hyphenatedprojects.com/> , viewed April 2021. 3 Rennie Lee, Xiao Tan and Leah Ruppanner, ‘Anti-Asian bias isn’t just an American problem’, The Washington Post , 26 March 2021, <https:// www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/03/26/anti-asian-bias-isnt- just-an-american-problem/>, viewed May 2021. Phuong Ngo with collaborators Born 1983, Adelaide, Australia Lives and works in Melbourne, Australia