STATEMENT

KV Duong (b.1980 Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam)

I am an ethnically Chinese artist with a transnational background—born in Vietnam, raised in Canada, and now living as a queer person in Britain. I paint, sculpt, build installations, and perform, all centred around form and materiality in response to my lived experiences.

I create works on latex, highlighting its historical connection to French colonial rubber plantations in Vietnam, while simultaneously embracing its sensuality and symbolic association with the queer experience. The recurring motif of a door or portal signifies access and the limitations imposed by societal constructs, particularly those associated with colonial and LGBTQ+ histories.

Where present, the crossbars, in relation to the transparency of latex, serve as spatial delineation points, creating divisions between interior and exterior. I aim to critique power dynamics and access to interrogate the nation itself as both form and crucible for identity formation. The febrile context of growing tensions between different ethnicities and nations is of particular focus in my work.