Hampshire Art Gallery Presents “tù' đâu, wherefrom”by Xuân Pham
The exhibition, which showcases Pham’s multidisciplinary practice and ongoing research around racialized melancholia, will be on view from February 13 to March 16.
Born in Ho Chi Minh City, interdisciplinary artist Xuân Pham emigrated to Omaha, Nebraska, at the age of seven. Her artistic practice is shaped by a legacy of war and her experiences as an immigrant. Working with layers and grids, Pham traces the interconnections of trauma, migration, and race within Asian American and immigrant communities. Her art explores how the political and psychological dimensions of grief influence racial identity formation in the United States.
In this exhibition, Pham experiments with ephemeral materials from the everyday experiences of Vietnamese immigrants — such as rice paper, pandan (a plant whose leaves are used to flavor cooking in Southeast Asia), and brooms — to reflect on the legacies of displacement, migration, and diaspora. In the artist’s hands, these quotidian materials are rendered as political and metaphorical devices for understanding not only loss and mourning but also hope.
Through song and object, Pham seeks possibilities for healing and repair in the aftermath of colonial violence and displacement. “I feel it is essential to continue this body of work and exploration at a moment of intense global backlash against immigrants, which obfuscates the role of imperial violence in creating conditions for displacement,” she says.
Pham’s artworks challenge the notion of finality. She does not regard her work as finished; instead, she sees it as an ongoing process where people and nature contribute as co-creators, influenced by forces beyond our control, such as decay and human interaction.
Pham views the exhibition space as an extension of her studio — a place not just for viewing but for collaborative creation, destruction, and renewal. She is also motivated by the question of how storytelling in conjunction with object making might become a medium to express physical and emotional empathy.
Visit the Art Gallery
Harold F. Johnson Library Center
Hampshire College
893 West Street Amherst, MA 01002
Gallery Hours
Sunday through Friday | noon – 5 p.m. or by appointment
Closed on Saturdays
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