HYBRID CONDITION

Tam Khoa Vu’s work traverses screens, continents, technologies, and sound seeking a regenerative system of meaning in the midst of conflict and collapse. Throughout his video installations and other projects there persists an unceasing discursive collision between contemporary modes and apparatuses of self-determination: social media, pop culture, and the artist’s own eliding hand. 

On multiple screens, Vu explores the complexities of who he is – or who he believes he is, within the Vietnamese 𝑥 diaspora. Never far from the surface are the essential atmospheres and influences of Vu’s native Vietnam and his experiences forging a space of identity between his childhood in Canada and the homegoing embrace of his adult travels. 

In the third iteration of HYBRID CONDITION, a roving and evolving series of video installations, Vu presents an extraordinary orchestration of synergistic video works. The overlapping sequences function as generative collages, with images hurtling forward relentlessly, growing and extending outwards like fractals. Video becomes an immersive, sculptural object, opening up new fields of experience and interpretation. 

Just as the nucleus of light and projection exerts on the viewer its own directional gravity, enveloping layers of original audio composition position the viewer within the evolving, dynamic presence of the gallery. Pivoting between joy and pain, the seductive juxtapositions of images and sound will draw you in whilst simultaneously pushing you away.

Text written by Liam O' Keefe

Link to Installation Excerpt