‘Hoa Tay (Flower Hands)’ Searches for Cultural Assimilation in New Orleans
In March, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art opened a group show commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon. “Hoa Tay (Flower Hands): Southern Artists of the Vietnamese Diaspora”—a mini-survey of works by artists including Brandon Tho Harris, Christian Ðinh, Millian Pham Lien Giang, Đan Lynh Phạm, Kenny Nguyen, Lien Truong and Loc Huynh—considers complex themes like displacement and cultural identity and, as the exhibition text asserts, “these artists parse through the nuanced duality of their own unique Vietnamese-American experiences within the equally fraught history of the American South.” But while true to its description, the show comes short of grappling with that complex history, slipping instead into tenderheartedness for a place that is no longer home.
The exhibition opens with Kiss My Grits (2024) by MyLoan Dinh. A pair of boxing gloves hang alone on a wall, their surface encrusted with eggshells; the cuffs display the titular phrase, a humorous Southern-ification of a popular incitement to violence. The aggression evoked by the gloves is tempered by their frail skin—while still possible to put one’s hands inside these gloves, they can no longer be used for their original purpose without partially destroying them. This artwork is this exhibition at its most powerful—a delicate divorce from origin couched in the language of one’s new home. Here, diaspora is a verb that describes an active yet delicate relationship between two parts of an identity.
Unfortunately, not all the works in this exhibition so successfully encapsulate the stated theme. To the left of Kiss My Grits hangs a masterfully executed quartet of photographs: A Family Affair (2022) by Kimberly Ha depicts a game of “Bầu cua cá cọp,” known as “Crown and Anchor” in English. Taken from above and cast in a strong amber glow, with tiles splayed in the foregrounded hands, the viewer becomes a protagonist reveling in the bout. The scene evokes feelings of nostalgia—the artwork seems to be less about the integration of two disparate cultures and more about reminiscing about the traditions diasporic individuals carry with them. While the perpetuation of tradition is undeniably part of the migrant experience, A Family Affair looks backward while Kiss My Grits looks forward, and it feels adrift from the exhibition’s concept.
On the other side of Kiss My Grits are two video artworks. The first, playing on a cathode-ray television, is the music video for the song Tell Hanoi I Love Her (2021) by Smithsonian Folkways, accompanied by the song lyrics written on the pedestal supporting the television. These lyrics begin with the lines, “Twice southern with two civil wars / A fool to think that this place could ever be yours / The in between, that’s where we must explore / Tell Hanoi, I love her.” It’s the nostalgia of A Family Affair continued, though translated through the South, uniting Vietnam and America via their similarly traumatic histories.
While the migration of Vietnamese refugees to the American South resulted from complex geopolitical forces, it is no small wonder to remark on the similarities between the two regions; the American South and Vietnam are both origin points for racial diasporas. The translation of the Vietnamese migrant’s experience through the South thus makes it a double displacement—a placeless people coming through a place of placelessness. And perhaps this is why nostalgia is so embedded within this exhibition. When struggling to grapple with startlingly similar yet completely disparate identities, it’s no wonder one would want to hold on to the past.
MyLoan Dinh’s (re)constructing the space in-between (2021) sees a variety of hand tools hang from hooks; the entirety of their exteriors has been plastered with eggshells, much like Kiss My Grits. Once tools of hard labor, the hammers and axes are now an exercise in caution. The path forward will require a light touch and a gentle hand. But with the right touch, one can forge a path.
“Hoa Tay (Flower Hands): Southern Artists of the Vietnamese Diaspora” is at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art through September 21, 2025.
More exhibition reviews
