Collaborative Racist Paintings x Phuong Ngo

From GOMA: Phuong Ngo began ‘Collaborative racist paintings’ during Victoria’s first COVID-19 lockdown, in response to the anti-Asian sentiments that emerged in the pandemic’s wake. Confined to home, Ngo reached out to people in his network, mailing them a diptych he had painted in colours they had chosen from a well-known paint manufacturer’s ‘Oriental’ range, which includes paint names such as, ‘Pale Oriental’ and ‘Oriental Princess’. The term ‘Oriental’ is a Western word that has been used to ‘other’ or discriminate against people of colour. While the names were likely conceived without thought, they carry negative connotations for the artists, many of whom are of Asian descent.

Ngo asked his collaborators to personalise their painting with images or objects relating to ‘race, racism or colonisation’, with the co-author retaining ownership of the finished artwork. The 100 diptychs, which have been brought back together for APT10, embody much larger conversations about the complex cultural inferences and biases embedded, often unwittingly, within language.