“Inheritance”
Phuong Ngo
12 Apr → 7 June 2025
Gallery

A living room with pictures on the walls, two wooden cabinets, a glass table and antique decor.
Phuong Ngo, family photograph, 1996, Vietnam, courtesy the artist.

West Space is proud to premiere the first major solo exhibition by Phuong Ngo.

Inheritance is a three-phase project that seeks to reframe histories of colonialism, conflict and displacement through material remains of the artist’s ancestral home in Vietnam. In doing so, the project aims to transform suffering and how we relate to it — to re-image what was lost, and gift it to future generations.

The first iteration of Inheritance centres on Ngo’s family dining table, a place of gathering and punishment, along with deconstructed familial and ancestral objects. Through archival materials, video, and performance, Inheritance reconfigures post-colonial, familial and geographical relationships across South Vietnam, Tarntanya/Adelaide, Naarm/Melbourne and Kamberri/Canberra, in an attempt to deepen connections with the past, present and future.

Curated by Amelia Winata.

Phuong Ngo: Inheritance premieres at West Space, supported by Creative Australia's VACS Major Projects Commission.

Programs

Opening celebration, Sat 12 April, 4 → 6pm

Featuring a performance by Phuong Ngo.

Your questions answered, Wed 7 May, 11am → 6pm

As part of Inheritance, Phuong invites you to join him in the practice of divination. Call upon your ancestors to seek clarity on life's questions, big or small. Phuong will be in the gallery all day. Visit any time, everyone is welcome.

Photobook Launch, Sat 24 May, 2 → 4pm

Join us to launch the Inheritance Photobook, the debut publication by Phuong Ngo and Slow Burn Books, with a conversation between Phuong and Nikki Lam, book signing and refreshments. Register here.

Conversation, Sat 7 June, 2 → 4pm

Join us for a conversation between Phuong Ngo and exhibition curator Amelia Winata, on the final day of the exhibition.

The artist, Ngo, is kneeling behind large tainted orange, died mosquito nets, jammed between the window and the net. However, Ngo faces the wall with their back to the net, in a prayer-like stance with a bowed head and hands neatly in front of them. In the foreground of the image is a segment of a decadent wooden table leg, apart of the larger exhibition.
The artist, Ngo, is kneeling behind large tainted orange, died mosquito nets, jammed between the window and the net. However, Ngo faces the wall with their back to the net, in a prayer-like stance with a bowed head and hands neatly in front of them.
The artist, Ngo, is kneeling behind large tainted orange, died mosquito nets, jammed between the window and the net. However, Ngo faces the wall with their back to the net, in a prayer-like stance with a bowed head and hands neatly in front of them.
A subtle, muted image of the artist, Ngo, behind the died mosquito nets in the exhibition. They are spraying the nets with a thin, short hose attached to a medium metalic can. Ngo stares upward, intensely at the net. The image is of a beautiful haze.
A row of people standing amongst some art objects in the form of wooden table frames peer toward a large lining of mosquito net that trails along the side of the gallery suspended from its ceiling.The audience keep their distance, observing its fragility. The light of the window seeps through the tainted pink net.
A subtle, muted image of the artist, Ngo, behind the died mosquito nets in the exhibition. They are spraying the nets with a thin, short hose attached to a medium metalic can. Ngo stares intensely at the net. The image is of a beautiful haze.
The artist, Ngo, is holding a medium, metalic can with a thin, short hose, spraying the mosquito nets installed along the windows the gallery space. They are looking upwards in motion, performing this action with care.

Phuong Ngo is an artist and curator in Naarm/Melbourne. Ngo's practice is concerned with the interpretation of history, memory, and place as a form of comprehension for the present. Through an archival process rooted in a conceptual practice, Ngo seeks to find linkages between culture, politics, public and private histories.

Related

A house surrounded by green palms and tropical forestation. the photograph captures one side of the building, with an open, dark walk way along its side. The weather is grey but the image feels humid.

“Inheritance: Photobook Launch”
Phuong Ngo and Nikki Lam
24 May → 24 May 2025