WEEK 7: Artwork Selection and Collective Creation

Overview

During the exploration of the individual curatorial project in the seventh week, based on the principles of feasibility, variability, and operability, I further screened the selected artworks according to the intentions, and also considered the possible sources of the exhibition budget. Moreover, in the collective creation at Summerhall, we jointly completed the collages for each theme, attempting to explore the collaborative boundaries and outcomes of No Heroes.

Potential Applicable Artworks

Family Portrait    2025 / KV DUONG
Ink and acrylic on latex (resin-fibreglass backing), painted wooden stretcher / 198 × 100 cm (x2)

  • Depicting 1980s London Vietnamese immigrants through family stories, this work evokes memory and guides descendants to trace their diaspora, using latex and wood to echo material as memory.

 

Memory Box (Biscuit Tin)   2025 / KV DUONG
Tin box, latex (resin-fibreglass backing), ink / 17 × 38 × 20 cm

  • A second-hand biscuit tin becomes a vessel where British domestic pasts and Vietnamese immigrant memories overlap, preserving traces and reflecting memory’s migration.

 

Birthday Cake to My Younger Self   2023 / KV DUONG
Acrylic, concrete grout, found wax candles, staples, and metal wire on clay / 22 x 22 x 18 cm

  • Concrete and clay recreate a birthday cake, inedible with queer aesthetics, reflecting second-generation immigrants embracing and redefining traditions.

 

Legends   2024 / Will Pham
HD video, stereo sound / 12 mins

  • Explores Vietnamese migrants’ fabricated legends to cross borders, performing stories between trauma and bureaucracy to forge a hybrid identity.

 

An Viet (Well Settled)    2018 / Will Pham
HD video, stereo sound / 19 mins 20 sec

  • A 19-minute film documents a closed community centre, preserving a vanishing collective memory through its remaining objects and archives.

 

Collective Activity

Image by: Tianshun Zhao
  • We visited the exhibition which present in Summerhall together. This exhibition is exploring feminism and animal rights, shared spaces insecurity, imagining a utopia where any body is safe, emphasizing interdependence between bodies.

Inspiration for individual curatorial projects

  • The exhibition suggests that home is not merely a physical dwelling place, but rather a state where any body can feel safe. This aligns with my theme of diaspora translation: Dispersed individuals are not only seeking a cultural identity, but also a sense of “being at home”. I can incorporate this dimension into the exhibition text, positioning the “Memory Recipe” workshop as a practice for creating a temporary home.

 

Group Meeting

Image by: Tianshun Zhao
  • In our first group meeting at the cafe, we decided to create a “No Heroes” collage poster using various materials, an activity that explores individual projects and collective writing while considering how to combine with other themes.