In this artist talk, Hương Ngô presents recent work that reflects her research-based practice that connects personal and political histories using a conceptual, interdisciplinary, and collaborative approach. In particular, Ngô discusses her recent work in the Archives Nationales d’Outre-Mer in France and National Archives of Vietnam that examines the colonial history of surveillance in Vietnam and the anti-colonial strategies of resistance vis-à-vis the activities of female organizers and liaisons.
Having grown up as a refugee in the American South, Ngô interrogates the ways that power is bound up with language and creates work reframing the hybrid, the imperfect, and the non-fluent as sites of survival and knowledge. Performance and, alternately, the absented body and its traces are strongly present in her work. Both archeological and futuristic, her work operates in layers, continuously making and unmaking an unruly archive.
About the Artist
Hương Ngô is an artist born in Hong Kong and based in Chicago. She received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute (Art & Technology Studies), a BFA from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and was a studio fellow at the Whitney Independent Studio Program. Her work, described as “deftly and defiantly decolonial” by New City and “what intersectional feminist art looks like” by the Chicago Tribune, has also been reviewed in Art Journal, Artforum, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times. She has exhibited at the MoMA, MCA Chicago, New Museum, DePaul Art Museum and has been supported by the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program, 3Arts, the Chicago Artists Coalition, and the Camargo Foundation among others. She is currently Assistant Professor in Contemporary Practices at SAIC and has an upcoming solo exhibition at 4th Ward Project Space.
Accessibility
Gallery 400 is located on the first level of the Art & Exhibition Hall building with a push-button accessible door and can be accessed by a set of stairs with a railing or an elevator (Level 1R). We will post updates about the status of the elevator on the Gallery 400 Facebook page and the Facebook Event page.
There are 2 All Gender restrooms located on the same floor as Gallery 400. While the restrooms are accessible to wheelchair users, the door to the restroom is not. Visitors who use wheelchairs can request personal assistance with opening and closing the restroom doors by asking any Gallery 400 staff member.
The entrance to the building is located in a turn-around where visitors may be dropped off right outside the main door. The closest UIC public parking lot is the Harrison Street Parking Structure. Further information regarding parking on campus can be found at UIC Parking Services. Motorist assistance is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, by calling 312.355.0555.
Gallery staff can provide chairs in the gallery space upon request. The front desk attendant is trained in Personal Assistance and can provide audio description, large text labels, and transcriptions.
Other accessibility services are available upon request and may be arranged by contacting the gallery at 312-996-6114 or emailing Megan at gallery400engagement@gmail.com.
