Hoa


15-minute film, 2023

Solo Exhibition at Gallery 310
Two-Channel Projection & Photography











Before developing her memory disorders, my bà nội (paternal grandmother), Trần Thị Tuyết Hoa wrote an autobiographical book about her life & its events.

The book is titled “Hồi Ức Tuyết Hoa” (Memories of Tuyết Hoa), & subtitled “Khi Đất Nước Tôi Thanh Bình: Hồi ức của một nữ sinh viên Sài Gòn” (When My Country is Peaceful: Memoirs of a Saigon Female Student).

She now reads this book everyday in her Hanoi home.

The footage & photographs were taken when I stayed with my ông bà nội for a month in their home in Hanoi during the summer of 2022, the first time I’ve been back to my home country in three years.

In the form of a visual & written poetic letter, “Hoa” is dedicated to my bà nội, from me, a Vietnamese grandchild.








For decades, the United States dropped three times more bombs in Vietnam than every country ever did in Europe in World War II. The Vietnam War was a crime against humanity caused by the American imperialist war machine, & it affects my people to this day. This war has changed the history of Vietnam, my country, my home, forever.

But the Vietnam I know today is totally different from the Vietnam my elders know. As 70% of the population of Vietnam is under 35 years old, the Vietnamese youth are constantly creating new subcultures & communities. Although it’s crucial to not forget the bodies that brought us here, & the bodies that never got to grow old. My bà nội did.

My bà nội, Tuyết Hoa, is a woman with many lives, even if she cannot remember them, I hope this project helps me & others remember her, or at least, her name.






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