Mai Nguyễn-Long
Australia/Việt Nam
Born 1970, Hobart, Tasmania
Lives and works in Bulli, Dharawal Country, Australia
 

Mai Nguyễn-Long describes her ‘Vomit Girl’ sculptures as ‘contemporary folkloric forms’ that address diasporic trauma to open up new stories and meanings. Born in Tasmania to a Vietnamese father and Australian mother, and growing up in Papua New Guinea and the Philippines, she felt a conflicted sense of identity and belonging. Her whimsical sculptures draw on concepts of mistranslation and wordplay to confront ‘a sense of being erased: having no identity, language or voice to speak with’. The Vomit Girl Project 2024 expands her practice with new folkloric works featuring elephant fairies, toads, warrior cats, dancing birds, buffalo riders, mudskippers and and screaming chickens. Made from various clay types — dark smooth grog clay with manganese and iron, terracotta clay with cellulose fibres, white raku clay and occasionally a lurid orange glaze — these captivating works create a refined, systematic and deeply engaging visual language.