Mai Nguyễn-Long, Vigit Hefeco 6 (no balls in hands) (detail), 2023. Smooth terracotta fired to 1120, 46 x 26 x 19cm. Photo: Bernie Fischer. Courtesy: the artist and Wollongong Art Gallery, Wollongong.

Kôgábịnô is a double mistranslation and sanitised alter-moniker for the recurring motif of ‘Vomit Girl’ in Mai Nguyễn-Long’s practice. This character is a visceral medium for the artist’s inquisitive and ongoing negotiation with the messy edges of histories, cultural identity, family values, diasporic stories and nuances.

Curated by Adam Porter, the sculptures featured in this exhibition have emerged from Nguyễn-Long’s reconnection with Vietnam’s art histories through family objects. Grounded in the materiality of clay they playfully invoke the power to transcend restrictive paradigms. Notwithstanding multiple guises, Vomit Girl is in essence Vigit, or the artist’s invented ‘Goddess of Infected Tongues for all those who have lost their mother tongue’.

Mai Nguyễn-Long is represented by Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin.

Opening Event: Wednesday 11 November, from 3pm.

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