Born 1983, Adelaide, Australia
Lives and works in Melbourne, Australia

Phuong Ngo is known for his research-based practice and for collaborative projects that examine histories of colonisation and racial intolerance. His series ‘The Vietnam project’ 2010–ongoing comprises thousands of found objects, images and documents, and considers how historical narratives are created and perpetuated. For Article 14.1 2019, a durational performance inspired by a clause in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), Ngo folded thousands of paper boats from Hell banknotes in homage to the perilous sea journey his family made from Vietnam to Australia in 1981. As the artist has explained, these works ‘come out of a need to make sense of my personal and collective history’.

Ngo’s artwork for APT10 was made in collaboration with more than 100 individuals from his social network, who personalised diptychs that he had painted in shades from a well-known manufacturer’s 'Oriental' paint range. The work comments on the complex cultural inferences and biases embedded, often unwittingly, within language.