Book your free ticket for an open table discussion and oral storytelling exchange centred around preservation and heritage. Discussing discovery, memory, and resilience, artist Maria Than, Vietnamese designer Sophia Luu and publisher Trà My Hickin delve into the political dimensions of immigration and the imperative need to safeguard archives and narratives for future generations of Viet and Southeast Asia diasporas.
Homage To Quan Âm delves deep into the intricate layers of personal identity, cultural assimilation, and the evolution of self-discovery. Quan Âm, the Viet name of Bodhisattva (Buddhist deity) of Compassion, Mercy and Medicine, has been the favourite goddess of many, including Maria. Drawing inspiration from Maria’s own experiences growing up in a Vietnamese-British-French Buddhist family, the exhibition serves as a visual and emotional exploration of the complex journey away from refusal, and towards acceptance and understanding.
Read more about the exhibition here. The exhibition is unticketed and runs from 29 March to 19 May, Tuesday to Sunday 1 - 6pm.
SPEAKER BIOS
Maria Than is a UK-based creative technologist, educator, activist & co-founder of Ricebox Studio. Using Augmented Reality, illustration and AI-generated content, she explores themes of fragmented identity, buddhism, over-productivity, internalised racism and mental health and exhibited in London, Paris, New York, South Korea, Amsterdam and Toronto. She lectures in design, creative and ethics of AI and works at Child Rights International Network as a Digital Designer.
Trà My Hickin is a writer, publisher, archivist and community organiser. She uses storytelling and applies narrative approaches to social justice and community building projects. She works for the contemporary radical international literary press, Tilted Axis Press, an ongoing exploration into alternatives to the hierarchisation of certain languages and forms, including forms of translation. She uses intersectional and people-centred approaches to working with Vietnamese and other ESEA migrant communities, which she brings to her work with the An Việt Archives, Southeast and East Asian Women’s Association (SEEAWA), the Southeast and East Asian Centre (SEEAC), and various other human rights organisations.
Sophia Luu is a freelance trauma-informed researcher who uses design to research difficult topics, most prominently around racial identity and sexual violence. She is the founder of 'Secrets Worth Sharing', a podcast and event platform about talking about childhood sexual abuse with 'serious joy'. She is a proudly-confused British Vietnamese woman.