To welcome Autumn, The Factory is delighted to invite you to the opening of 2 new exhibitions: 'Necessary Fictions' by Tammy Nguyễn and Hà Ninh Phạm; along with 'Broken Relationships' by Nguyễn Ngọc Thạch.

How are our lives guided by the tools and stories we inherit? How are artistic imaginations re-determining the value and significance of these often presumed cultural legacies? In Necessary Fictions two artists explore the role of cartography and myth, their command of illustration within the painterly medium – across canvas, paper and wood – unveiling two distinct surrealities. Artists Tammy Nguyễn and Hà Ninh respectively reveal the architectural and anthropomorphic dimensions of desire – their images playfully morphing the worlds of human, flora and fauna – revealing the study of time and morality as a deeply flawed, exploitative landscape whereby human whimsy often rules supreme.

‘Broken Relationships’ is an investigation by Nguyen Ngoc Thach into the chaos of the current world order and the loss of ethical ground in a human-to-human social contract. Who and for what are we held responsible, or accountable, for our actions? Thạch (at times reminiscent of his childhood memories spent on the coast of Central Vietnam, at times reflective of his current life on the margin of Saigon), seeks to understand individual experience in the face of powerlessness, perplexed by the excess (or negligence) of humanity towards its own integrity and environment. With his adept painterly treatment of the aesthetics of landscape and the realm of the psyche, Thạch humbly captures the anguish of learning the human condition, unwaveringly confronting his own discern of trauma and suffering.