Contemplating artworks of New Zealand artists in Hanoi
This is among a series of activities celebrating 50 years of Vietnam - New Zealand diplomatic relations in 2025.
THE HANOI TIMES — The exhibition That tomorrow will be will take place in Hanoi showcasing outstanding installation and media works of artists from New Zealand including Christopher Ulutupu, Georgina May Young, and Sorawit Songsataya.
Sorawit Songsataya draws from situated knowledge and belief systems related to her Thai and Vietnamese family heritage, along with the second adopted home in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Listening Device IX by Sorawit. Photos courtesy of New Zealand Embassy
Giving particular attention to the craftsmanship in the Thai cultural context while drawing sonic and geopoetic connections to Aotearoa New Zealand, the artist deploys 3D animation, moving images, installation, sculpture and sound to explore the complex relationship between places and experiences.
They also address positionality, relationality and reciprocity, commingling the personal and the planetary dimensions within their artistic care.
Christopher Ulutupu is a contemporary artist of Samoan, Niuean and German descent. He uses the conventions of cinematic storytelling to interrogate the relationships between landscape and indigenous identities.
He employs a cast of actors consisting almost entirely of friends and family in his work. These actors sing, dance and perform, often hamming it up for the camera.
Installation view at Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington.
Georgina May Young is a gardener, mother, and textile artist, she works in close connection with Te Taiao (the natural world), building her practice layer by layer through rhythms of care, memory and time.
Rooted in daily ritual and a slow life, her practice rejects capitalist excess in favor of deep connection, reciprocity, and honoring the mauri (life force) of materials.
Georgina May Young’s hand-embroidered textile series evokes a slow and meticulous practice, contemplating the potent potential and ancient knowledge held in the earth.
Family by Georgina May Young.
This exhibition was collectively curated by Melanie Tangaere Baldwin, Dilohana Lekamge, Milly Mitchell-Anyon, Simon Palenski and Amy Weng as part of an ongoing art residency project to extend connections between artists and curators in Aotearoa New Zealand and Vietnam.
It is also a follow-up to the visit by a group of New Zealand curators to Vietnam to engage and connect with the art communities in Hanoi, Hue, and Ho Chi Minh City in 2024.
That tomorrow will be is a promise to connect again. Christopher Ulutupu, Georgina May Young and Sorawit Songsataya have been brought together to explore resonances between Aotearoa New Zealand and Vietnam.
They do this through speculative modes of storytelling that reveal multilayered relationships with the land. The exhibition acts as an introduction to their work, with the hope of forming long lasting bonds.
The exhibition will be open to the public on August 15-23 at the Vietnamese Women's Museum, 36 Ly Thuong Kiet Street, Cua Nam Ward, Hanoi. The public talk will take place on August 16.
