» Walking on Earth (Part of White Mist In Foreign Country)

White Mist in Foreign Country is a series of research, conversations, visual studies and artworks that Nguyen Phuong Linh developed when she moved from Hanoi to Frankfurt, Germany to study art in 2015. The series began from the friendships and shared experiences between the artist and community of diasporic Vietnamese women working at nail salons there. These exchanges resulted in Phuong Linh’s work as a nail model, which in turn inspired the artist to invite her newfound friends to participate in the creation of several artworks, including Walking on Earth. Several globes of differing sizes and heights were used as the canvas on which the nail technicians were asked to paint. From traditional and religious symbols across Vietnamese folk culture, to black shadows resembling prisoners in neck shackles often seen on Indochinese postcards, to visual motifs that hint at the act of travelling (for example, a suitcase, or moving feet), Phuong Linh’s choice of images allude to both historical and ongoing issues of human migration – a repeated history that seems to know no end.

The work is on permanent display at the Khai Sang headquarters, Paragon, HCMC, Vietnam.