Who’s involved

Dacchi Dang – Artist
Vietnamese Community in Australia (NSW Chapter)
Gia Nghi Phung – Curator, Gallery 4A
Migration Heritage Centre
Australia Council for the Arts

When and where

Project location: Chinatown, Sydney
Project status: Completed project
Date of completion: November 2001

Project description

This was one of the largest community collaborations undertaken in the four years since founding the gallery. Vietnamese-Australian artist Dacchi Dang collaborated with Vietnamese community members to tell the story of their journey from Vietnam to Australia for The Boat Project, as many Vietnamese people arrived in Australia by boat. Dang based the interior of a boat on the memories and stories told to him by members of the Vietnamese community and built a boat to scale in the gallery, including photographs across its hull. Exhibition cases included memorabilia from Vietnamese refugees as a way of telling their individual stories.

Dacchi Dang approached the gallery to stage the project and we consulted with the Vietnamese Community in Australia (NSW Chapter). The communication with the Vietnamese Community in Australia (VCA) was of use to the artists because it provided alternative community access from the artist’s immediate family and friends. The VCA had just completed an oral history project for the Vietnamese community and they were included in the exhibition. Dacchi Dang’s consultation with community members took place in the form of interviews, for which the interviewees were given consent forms to fill in. Dang then took photographs for use in the boat, and began building at the end of May 2001.

The exhibition ran from 25 October 2001 to the 17 November 2001.

Project contact

Gia Nghi Phung – Curator
Gallery 4A – Asia Australia Arts Centre

Phone 02 9212 0380
Fax 02 9281 0873

Email gallery4a@one.net.au

Address:
181-187 Hay Street
Sydney NSW 2000
AUSTRALIA

Website
www.4a.com.au