An Action for Mourning: OzAsia Festival

The form of a folded origami sampan has been a consistent motif in Phuong Ngo’s practice.

Taught to him by his mother, this form has been the foundation of several works examining the Vietnamese Disapora’s history of migration.

In this piece, folding a sampan from Hell Bank Notes occurs within three former refugee camps established after the fall of Saigon in 1975.

This act mourns lives lost at sea and those that continue to be lost while seeking refuge.