21 October - 7 April 2024
Mann - Tatlow Gallery
Exhibition opening Sat 11 Nov, 3pm
Kôgábịnô is a double mistranslation and sanitised alter-moniker for the recurring motif of Vomit Girl in Nguyễn-Long’s practice. This character is a visceral medium for the artist’s inquisitive and ongoing negotiation with the messy edges of histories, cultural identity, family values, diasporic stories and nuances.
The sculptures featured in this exhibition have emerged from Nguyễn-Long’s reconnection with Vietnam’s art histories through family objects. Grounded in the materiality of clay they playfully invoke the power to transcend restrictive paradigms. Notwithstanding multiple guises, Vomit Girl is in essence Vigit, or the artist’s invented ‘Goddess of Infected Tongues for all those who have lost their mother tongue’.
Mai Nguyễn-Long is represented by Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin