Profiles

For me, it was also letting me be able to give my personal touch, as a Vietnamese American, who desperately wanted to see a hero like this for my kids.

"Further, the art is as much for the audience as it is for me, in that I alone do not get to decide what my art means."

"How do you acknowledge that you're an ancestor while also, there are still living ancestors in your life that you're still writing from."

RE:SOUNDING is also a subversion of what James calls their “white inheritance”. Like many from diasporic communities who have grown up in Australia, the worldview in which they’re embedded, the one they’re taught at school and university, considers non- Western cultures to be flat, one-dimensional and removed from contemporary society. The result is a physical and spiritual disconnection from their own cultural heritage.

With "Y?", Táo introduces his audience to a part of the Vietnamese contemporary independent art scene made up of diverse voices from many parts of society, while mainstream culture presents the status quo.

"I do think that creating is indeed a way to escape the hardship of our lives. But escape doesn’t necessarily mean forgetfulness or oblivion."