» Phoenix

Nguyen Thuy Hang creates imaginative spaces through her writing, while giving physical form to her fictional characters through sculpture and painting. In her installation, these hybrid figures – half-human, half-animal – hover in mid-air, emerge from beneath the ground, or protrude from everyday objects. Their forms are at once organic and fantastical, as if drawn from fairytales or folklore.

In Phoenix, Hang taps into the layered cultural meanings embedded in Vietnamese mythology. Taking the shape of a hospital examination chair or a single bed, the work bears on its surface the ancient Lạc bird, a folkloric symbol of rebirth and transcendence over adversity. Sculpted from handmade Bản paper, which naturally decays over time, the piece underscores the fragility of memory. Yet through Hang’s shaping and reworking of the paper, the artist imbues the work with connotations of renewal, resilience, and the enduring power of remembering.