A disorientated garden (Khu Vườn Lạc Hướng) 2024 is a site-responsive, mixed-media installation that evokes a dystopic garden, composed of gourd beds and suspended lacquer spheres in deep reds and gold leaf. The beauty of the spheres belies the fact that their images are drawn from archival photographs of forest fires and war. The gourds are connected by an arterial system of plastic tubes embedded with local seeds and stones, while speakers emit the evocative hum of insects and distant traffic. The artist grew up in Đăk Lăk, in Việt Nam’s Central Highlands, and is influenced by his engagement with the indigenous Jrai people and the way their customary beliefs, grounded in nature, contrast with their makeshift farming methods using machinery from an industrial era. The garden comprises both natural and human-made elements and considers its mediums of time, temperature, erosion, light and dark, rain and spirituality as coexisting creative forces.

This project is supported by the Commonwealth through the Office for the Arts, part of the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts.