Thảo Nguyên Phan explores colonial legacies and folklore in her multidisciplinary practice

Thảo Nguyên Phan, an artist from Ho Chi Minh City, works across video, installation, and painting to uncover alternative histories related to French colonization in Vietnam and regional folklore. Her approach does not focus on dismantling dominant narratives but on expanding cultural memory beyond hierarchical representations. This is exemplified by her ongoing project Forêt, Femme, Folie, which began in 2024. The artist's practice critiques the historical use of photography by 20th-century Western anthropologists, who employed cameras to document foreign cultures under the pretense of scientific objectivity. These photographic methods were not neutral, often reinforcing racialized and imperialist perspectives that simplified complex realities. Phan's work seeks to move beyond such coded representations, offering a nuanced exploration of visual politics and memory.