Through drawings and sculptures, I explore the constant change of urban space, as part of rapid urbanization, and its relation to individuals who inhabit it. Drawing from the city landscapes of my hometown of Saigon, Vietnam, as well as New York City, my work references the structures and materials of the built environment, especially that which is in constant flux. A mark, a sketch or a line carries a sense of immediacy, just like how the city constantly reinvents itself through quick fixes, accidents and decay. My drawings act as visual assemblages and passageways that convey the act of constructing, deconstructing and disappearing through time.

I think of piles of bricks, scaffolds wrapped by tarps, and dust as remnants of what once existed, but also agents of change, catalyzing the possibility of a new space. Material and the urban environment are thus co-constitutive. The city comprises interacting networks of human and nonhuman materials, processes, and ideas. A raw material speaks for itself, while time is evidenced through the transformation of a material. Working with discarded objects that are found on construction sites (weathered wood, broken bricks, torn tarp, tree branches, etc.), I explore how materials transform as a result of the histories of their uses in the urban environment? Ultimately, I hope to provoke a dialogue among material, time and labor through works that fluctuate between the raw and the transformed.