Lost and Found
Deeply Saddened, 2019
Pigment print, found postcard
26 x 40 cm
from the series Lost and Found, 2019 - ongoing
Must act quickly, 2022
Pigment print, found postcard
33 x 49.5 cm
from the series Lost and Found, 2019 - ongoing
So horrible to watch the massive fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, 2022
Pigment print, found postcard
33 x 49.5 cm
from the series Lost and Found, 2019 - ongoing
It’s one of the greatest treasures of the world, 2019
Pigment print, found postcard
40 x 28 cm
from the series Lost and Found, 2019 - ongoing
Heart Breaking to see a house of God in flames, 2019
Pigment print, found postcard
35 x 35 cm
from the series Lost and Found, 2019 - ongoing
Perhaps flying water tankers could be used to put it out, 2022
Pigment print, found postcard
49.5 x 33 cm
from the series Lost and Found, 2019 - ongoing
This is truly devastating, 2019
Pigment print, found postcard
26 x 40 cm
From the series Lost and Found, 2019 - ongoing
Men leave their corpses, 2022
Pigment print, found photograph
75 x 50 cm
from the series Lost and Found, 2019 - ongoing
Like life imprisonment without a jail, 2022
Pigment print, found postcard
33 x 60 cm
from the series Lost and Found, 2019 - ongoing
What a mistake to enter the rubber lands, 2022
Pigment print, found photograph
75 x 50 cm
from the series Lost and Found, 2019 - ongoing
No harm will come to me, 2022
Pigment print, found postcard
55 x 70 cm
from the series Lost and Found, 2019 - ongoing
I am the state, 2022
Pigment print, found postcard
50 x 70 cm
from the series Lost and Found, 2019 - ongoing
I have no intention of sharing my authority, 2020
Pigment print, found postcard
40 x 26.5 cm
from the series Lost and Found, 2019 - ongoing
It is legal because I wish it, 2020
Pigment print, found postcard
40 x 25.5 cm
From the series Lost and Found, 2019 -
To an overwhelming extent the wishes of various populations prevailed, 2020
Pigment print, found postcard
40 x 26.4 cm
From the series Lost and Found, 2019 - ongoing
There is nothing new except what has been forgotten, 2020
Pigment print, found postcard
41 x 22.5 cm
From the series Lost and Found, 2019 - ongoing
The Interest of the State must come first, 2020
Pigment print, found postcard
41 x 24.9 cm
From the series Lost and Found, 2019 -
When everyone else is losing their heads, it is important to keep yours, 2020
Pigment print, found postcard
25.5 x 40 cm
From the series Lost and Found, 2019 - ongoing
No one understands my ills, nor the terror that fills my breast, who does not know the heart of a mother, 2020
Pigment print, found postcard
25.5 x 40 cm
from the series Lost and Found, 2019 - ongoing
Lost and Found, 2020
Installation View
MAMA - National Photography Prize
Photographer: Jeremy Weirauch
Nostalgia For A Time That Never Was, 2022
Installation View
The Substation, Melbourne
Photographer: Gianna Rizzo
Phuong Ngo
1 Jan 2020
Lost and Found (2020 – ongoing)
Advised by the history of French Colonialism in Vietnam and drawing on The Vietnam Archive Project (2010 – ongoing) as a source of images and materials; Lost and Found (2010-ongoing) is a series of works that uses found photography and global image archives (Google Images, Getty Images, etc.) in order to interrogate the ways in which systems of colonialism, imperialism, and eugenics continue to perverse the ways in which formerly colonised bodies relate to the world at large.
Following the French conquest of South Vietnam in 1862, the Roman Catholic Church established a community and religious services for French colonialists. The first church occupied a Vietnamese pagoda, abandoned during the conquest. This pagoda was eventually replaced by a wooden church, which in turn was replaced by the Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica of Saigon, officially Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of The Immaculate Conception. Established by French colonists who initially named it Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Saïgon, the cathedral was constructed between 1863 and 1880.
On 15 April 2019, a fire broke out beneath the roof of Notre Dame de Paris cathedral in Paris. By the time it was extinguished, the building’s spire and most of its roof had been destroyed and its upper walls severely damaged; extensive damage to the interior was prevented by its stone vaulted ceiling, which largely contained the burning roof as it collapsed. The outpouring of global grief was immediate and a fundraising campaign following the destruction brought in pledges of over €1 billion within a week.
Taking the above histories as a starting point Lost and Found is an ongoing body of work that seeks to question the ways in which colonial ideologies impacted the way in which people value various cultures and communities. Planned work in the series will focus on the transportation of culture, hybridity, lateral violence, and post-enlightenment.
Lost and Found presented at:
‘Nostalgia for a Time That Never Was’ – The Substation – Photo 2022
‘This language that is every stone’ – IMA Brisbane, 12 February – 23 April 2022
MAMA – National Photography Prize 2020 – Murray Art Museum Albury (MAMA)