Hương Ngô's conceptual, research-based practice often takes the form of installation, printmaking and non-traditional mediums. Ungrafting looks at histories of colonial violence, specifically colonialism in French Indochina, as well as resistance movements, through image-making, translations and material investigations. Ngô turns to a series of early 20th-century photographs showing foreign trees and tree grafts planted in Vietnam by the French for the start of her project.
For the artist, grafting—a procedure that involves cutting and splicing different species into a single plant—serves as a powerful metaphor for the physical violence inherent in colonialism. An essay by Justin Quang Nguyên Phan, and conversations between Ngô and Aline Lo, and Evyn Lê Espiritu Gandhi and Chadwick Allen reflect on the connection between Ngô's exhibition and global anti-colonialism, the trans-Indigenous, and the role of the archive in artistic production.
