Ocean Vuong

Ocean Vuong has authored an internationally acclaimed and widely popular body of literary work, including his debut novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (2019) and the poetry collections Time is a Mother (2022) and Night Sky with Exit Wounds (2016). His lucid elaborations around his life and family history offer intimate reflections on class, sexuality, migration, and geopolitical events. Vuong’s works often highlight reciprocal care among women and children as well as immigrant family stories in the US, portrayals that go beyond merely their struggles. Vuong’s nascent photographic work draws parallels to his writings. For Musafiri: Of Travellers and Guests, a selection of his images are exhibited as mnemonic testaments to the presence and absence of his loved ones. In capturing their quotidian existence, the artist reclaims the narration of their stories from the imperialist bias that the US’ gaze still casts over Vietnamese subjects. Often shot around Fourth of July celebrations, when service workers undertake high-demand seasonal work, Vuong observes how ‘that moment carries an inherent tension in the American project as a whole … even rest and recreation to crown the nation’s independence is dependent on labour and loss’. His mother Rose’s nail salon appears prominently in the photos, its vivid interior serving as a polychromatic Y2K backdrop for intergenerational community living and hanging out—a space familiar to many migrants, particularly Vietnamese, around the world.

Works in the exhibition:
Mom putting on makeup (2009), archival pigment print on canson platine fibre paper, 26.7 × 40 cm
pick your color (2009), archival pigment print on canson platine fibre paper, 26.7 × 39.8 cm
goals in life (2021), archival pigment print on canson platine fibre paper, 26.7 × 35.6 cm
Phuong and Mom (1) (2009), archival pigment print on canson platine fibre paper, 53.3 × 79.7 cm
“don’t look at me” (2023), archival pigment print on canson platine fibre paper, 26.7 × 40 cm
Mom’s desk (2009), archival pigment print on canson platine fibre paper, 26.7 × 35.6 cm
counting tips (2009), archival pigment print on canson platine fibre paper, 26.7 × 37 cm
Nicky sleeping (2024), archival pigment print on canson platine fibre paper, 26.7 × 38.4 cm
lunch hour (2009), archival pigment print on canson platine fibre paper, 26.7 × 39.8 cm
eyes (2022), archival pigment print on canson platine fibre paper, 26.7 × 40 cm
July fourth (2024), archival pigment print on canson platine fibre paper, 53.3 × 71.1 cm
Nicky, Halloween (2024), archival pigment print on canson platine fibre paper, 53.3 × 80 cm
Nicky before his shift (2022), archival pigment print on canson platine fibre paper, 26.7 × 40 cm
Mom and Nicky (2023), archival pigment print on canson platine fibre paper, 53.3 × 80 cm
Courtesy of the artist