AN error of judgement has allowed a budding artist’s talents to emerge.
While he’s always had an interest in art, Sunshine West’s Phuong Ngo moved to Melbourne to pursue a masters in politics degree and take up a job with the federal government.
“It was an error of judgement to relocate to a new city and choose a mode of study that involved isolation and intensive research, so I ended up visiting a lot of art galleries,” Ngo says. “Eventually I decided I could explore my political interest visually.”
Since enrolling in fine art at RMIT in 2009, Ngo’s career has blossomed. He recently received a $12,000 state government arts grant.
A second generation Vietnamese Australian, Ngo will explore narratives of migration and how they inform identity in a project for next year’s Next Wave Festival.
“The project will comment on contemporary migrant politics by exploring the history and memory of the Vietnamese Australian migrant community,” he said.
