Names can connect us and embody our stories. tên tôi (my name) is a community-driven project that embraces and celebrates ethnic names through bead-making workshops and participatory installations.
Nguyễn Ngọc Thảo is an artist, curator and educator who lives and works in Naarm/Melbourne. Her current art and research practice focusses on the weaponisation of language against Asian Australians, and how creative practice can notice, understand and ultimately resist against the impacts of Whiteness. tên tôi (my name) embraces and celebrates ethnic names through community-based workshops and a participatory art installation.
First Site visitors are invited to engage in an exchange; to 'take' and/or 'leave' a name, contributing to a collective narrative of identity and belonging. Visitors can craft bracelets with names of their choosing, using unique ceramic and clay beads handmade by individuals from across Canada, America, Japan, and Australia. They can then choose to leave this name bracelet for another person to take, and/or take an existing name bracelet.
Curated by Lisa Linton.
Image: Nguyễn Ngọc Thảo, tên tôi (my name). Image by Tobias Titz.