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Sung Tieu was born in Vietnam and raised in Germany. Her workaddresses the discourse surroundingtopics such as cultural hegemony,class, and the gendered or racializedaspects to how we respond toimagery in a visualized world.Questions on how our reactions tothe image are embedded in ourcultural references—either inactively lived or passively learnedexperiences—are explored throughTieu’s commentary on the effects ofcontinuous aesthetic consumption.Her photographs, sculptural objects,and installations are at once part ofthe familiar and the identity of theother. Tieu spoke with writer and

curator Adam Carr on thesociopolitical conditions of herwork, the migrant experience, andthe regressive meaning inherentwithin appropriation and counterfeitobjects.

ADAM CARR: Your upbringing,cultural background, and historyseem to play out at the forefront ofyour work regularly. I thought itwould make sense to start thisconversation in asking about that…

SUNG TIEU: I emigrated from HaiDuong in Vietnam to a smallvillage called Freital, nearDresden, Germany, when I was 5 years old. My mother and I walked through the forestbetween the Czech Republic andGermany to cross the Germanboarder in 1992, and sought

asylum. We moved to the Berlintwo years later, where we livedin an asylum home inHohenschönhausen, in EastBerlin. My work is informed bythese experiences of alienationand non-belonging, and thesearch for defining one’s identityelsewhere. I would like toperceive my own subjectivity asin a state of constant flux, whichacts as a destabilizingmechanism my work. Thecultural collisions and struggleof displacement is very much apart of the discourse in mypractice.

AC: Living in Germany for most ofyour life, do you feel German? Whatculture do you identify with?

ST: I have lived in Germany for23 years now; a certain part ofme feels very German. I owe alot to Germany—especially to itseducation system—and myformative years were spenthere. Yet, I cannot deny that I ampredominately perceived asAsian. I recently interviewed anassociation called “DankeDeutschland,” a Berlin basedsociocultural center forVietnamese culture withinGermany. The name of theirassociation stroked me so muchthat I got curious in their work,and what lead to their decisionto call their association “DankeDeutschland.” The association

emerged from an eponymousconference held at the TechnicalUniversity Berlin in 2011.Former Vietnamese ‘BoatPeople,’ who escaped toGermany in the late 1970s andreceived refugee status hadformed the association in orderto meet the needs of theVietnamese community abroad.As a person who grew up inGermany, but is of Vietnameseorigin, the relationship of thediaspora community towardstheir new homeland and howthey relate to their newenvironment is something Ioften think about.

AC: The issue of counterfeiting, andits surrounding ideas, is one vehiclethrough which you tackle yourbiography. Could you explain theseinterests, and perhaps give someexamples of works dealing withthem? The mannequin objects,which are inspired in equal parts bythe brand Céline and black-markettrading immediately comes to mind.

ST: Within the Alien RefugeeCollection works, I was intriguedby the “laundry bag” patternCéline copied for its fashion linein A/W 2013. What caught myattention was that the nylon bag,which was invented and ismanufactured in China, first gotcalled among the Chinesepopulation ‘mingong’ bags—translated into English it means“People Workers’ Bag”—since

Chinese work migrants wouldutilize the bag to travel withtheir belongings from theperiphery into town. TheChinese “People Workers’ Bag ”is called the “Refugee Bag” inGreat Britain, and“Türkenkoffer” in Germany; allterms strikingly relating to animmigrant population. InNigeria, these bags are called“Ghana Must Go” bags, afterNigerian President Alhaji ShehuShagari enacted an expulsionorder in 1983, demanding allimmigrants without legal papersto leave the country withinfourteen days. I was captivated

by how the simple naming of the“Ghana Must Go” bag exposes usto a history of dislocation, offractured and sudden enforcedexile, but also to an underlyingsocial fabric that carries with iteconomic forces. By one of themost prestigious fashion brandin the world putting itstrademark on top of that history,and appropriating this bag, itsplaid marker became acompelling opposite. For me,one of the key components wasthe inherent conflict overvarious aspects of territory I became interested in, whichformed a significant point ofdeparture for that work.

AC: Do you see the work asappropriating appropriation, and perhapssubverting the bag’s origin even further?

SungTieuVIEWS FROM THE 10*By Adam Carr

My work is informed by theseexperiences of alienation and non-belonging, and the search fordefining one’s identity elsewhere.

in the suburbs of Berlin. TheMP3 player itself is anappropriated iPod shuffle Idiscovered in Binh & Hoa’s shopduring my research. Elements ofthe design—the casing,typography, layout—wereinspired by Apple’s aesthetic. I worked with graphic designerPer Törnberg on redesigning theentire player.2 We came up witha new logo, packaging, andtypography for the MP3 player’scasing that would resonate thesound work I was creating for it.The idea for the project was tore-contextualize this second-rated item, and play with theidea of adding another layer ofartistic value onto it. The objectprovided a great way toemphasize—and to literallyresonate—the already existingcreative labor invested in thesecondrated product itself. Forthe sound work, I usedrecordings of a traditionalVietnamese instrument calledĐàn bầu; a simple, but veryparticular sounding monochordzither. Together with musicproducer Ville Haimala, weworked on generatingelectronically manipulated newtextures for that instrument. Itook field recordings at KaDeWe(Berlin’s most well-know luxuryshopping mall) and placed thosesounds alongside product-placement sequences frommovies. The intention was tocompose an alien andfragmented sound scape thatwould investigate differentaudible notions of product value,which could afterwards infiltratethe system of the busy DongXuan center sales market andwould instantly get incorporatedinto their commercial structure.

AC: I know that this process ofinfiltration at Dong Xuan Centre wenteven further—could you tell me aboutthe LED pieces that you did there?

ST: Yes—in one of the halls ofthe center, there is a brightglowing LED shop named CECOLED. The owner, named To,imports the LED parts fromChina, but produces these LEDsigns in his shop himself.Normally, the signs in his shopeither have a kind of templatetext of an imagined dry cleanersservice, or just lettercompositions such as AAA. Formy show, I re-programmed allthe LED signs in his store—intotal twelve signs—andequipped each of them withsignificant dates and countriesrelated to internationalrecruitment agreements andalien laws. One sign, a relevantone for emergence of the DongXuan Centre in particular,displayed: “1918 GermanDemocratic Republic & SocialRepublic Of Vietnam –Recruitment Agreement On TheImportation Of Contract Labor.”Another LED sign read: “1913Alien Land Law California,”pointing toward limiting rightsfor certain “aliens ineligible forcitizenship.” The shopinadvertently became anexhibition site within an alreadyexisting apparatus. It was greatto have this altered experienceof the shop and to incorporatehow the reception of events,people, and objects is dependenton context and placement.

AC: This sense of trading, which hasties to your biography, also hasties to your other pieces, in whichyou have people from nail parlorsparticipate. Can you elaborate onthese works?

ST: The first time I asked a nailstudio to participate in myexhibition, I was invited to showat a project space inBrandenburg an der Havel. Theproject space was located on thetown’s busiest shopping street,

and right across from theexhibition space was aVietnamese-run nail studio.Relating to the shopenvironment of the projectspace, I knew that I wanted towork with perforated metalplates, the same ones that hangin hardware or utility stores todisplay shop items. I decided toask the nail studio ladies fromnext door if they could paintthem with designs they liked.What came out where veryparticular, colorful, individuallooking nail designs composedacross the surface of the metal,which showed the painting styleof each nail artist. To me, thesenail studio works are anopportunity for conversation.The work titles share the nameof the nail studio, and include itsexact address, so anyone can goand speak to the workers—butthey also lay open the visualrepresentation of a social groupthat barely has any voice on thecultural or democraticlandscape. As most of theseworkers have a migrationbackground, their German skillsare limited, and most of them donot have the right to vote sincethey are not German citizens. Tome, this work became a chanceto enter a dialogue with theseindividuals, and explore theircraft, work environment, andthe ways they sustained a livingfor themselves.

AC: What are you currently working on?

ST: The main project I amworking towards at the momentis a solo show at Micky Schubertopening in the beginning ofNovember in Berlin. I am alsoworking with eleven nail salonson new works for the nail studiopieces. So far, I have gotten fourplates back, and they are vastly different from the ones

I received back previously. I amvery excited to exhibit them.

—Sung Tieu is an artist born inVietnam and raised in Germany.She studied at the University ofFine Arts Hamburg andGoldsmiths College London,between 2009 and 2013. Herforthcoming exhibitions includegroup shows at Jose Garcia,Mexico City and Chez Valentin,Paris as well as a solo show atMicky Schubert gallery, Berlin,which opens November 7, 2015.

ST: I see my work as a way ofraising questions on the issuesand conditions I am bothsurrounded and affected by, as away to try and make sense of it.The counterfeit perfumes, forexample, which I used for aseries, were products that mymother and I had in ourapartment when I was growingup. They were very much part ofmy cultural upbringing. Backthen, I was not even aware of thefact that there were “original”versions of these perfumes. Iperceive myself as coming out ofa conceptual tradition, and forthat work, appropriation becameparticularly a great way togenerate images and discoursessurrounding topics such as thecultural hegemony, class, andsovereignty issues I wanted toaddress. There are classed, but

also gendered and racializedaspects to the way we respondto imagery. Of course, thesereactions are embedded withinour cultural references, eitheras actively lived or passivelylearned experiences of everydaylife, which caters to deep-seateddesires and yearnings that areacquired through continuousaesthetic consumption.I further feel close to NicolasBourriaud’s concept ofpostproduction, 1 where therecombination of informationand data flows reflect alterednotions of authorship andoriginality; creating newinterpretations on the basis ofpre-existing material. Withintoday’s global culture andinformation age, I am aware ofmy contribution to the confusionof the traditional distinction

between production andconsumption, creation, copy, and original work. I am notinterested in the mereeradication of references, butrather compelled by workingwith objects that are alreadyinformed by other objects, and a set of references I can makeuse of and translate within this context.

AC: As he is one of my all timefavorite artists, I wonder if youcould speak about your experiencesstudying under Andreas Slominski inHamburg. Your recent workSubnational MP3 infiltrates not onlythe artworld, but also (and perhapsmore so) the “everyday” world, in away that could be seen to bereminiscent of Slominski’s owninterventions. Could you speak moreabout this project?

ST: I felt very lucky to be able tostudy under Andreas Slominskiin Hamburg. As a professor, helaid emphasis on a strong classdynamic, establishing a tightgroup of students, which wouldfacilitate us getting to knoweach other very well. I am still incontinuous dialogue with manyof them. For my own practice,the one aspect I feel influencedby is his amazing sensibility forspace, and how to create anarrative by placing art works ina certain order within a givenenvironment. Subnational MP3 isan edition I created anddedicated to Binh & Hoa ImportExport, a shop within theVietnamese run Dong Xuancenter. The center is essentiallya vibrant Vietnamese shoppingmall, and the heart of Berlin’sVietnamese community, located

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TITLE PAGE:Sung Tieu, No #1 Classic, 2014,photograph. 42 x 29,7 cm.

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LEFT:Sung Tieu, Recruitment AgreementsBetween Nations, 2015, reprogrammedshop LED-signs. Installation at CECOLED, Dong Xuan Center, Berlin, May 30-June 31, 2015.

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FOLLOWING SPREAD, LEFT:Sung Tieu, Alien Refugee Collection, 2015.Fiberglass female mannequin, nylonfabric, 160 x 60 x 40 cm.

RIGHT:Sung Tieu, Recruitment AgreementsBetween Nations, 2015. Reprogrammedshop LED-signs, 70 x 38 x 6 cm & 94 x 19x 6 cm & 76 x 19 x 6 cm & 76 x 19 x 6 cm.

1 Bourriaud, Nicolas, Caroline Schneider, and Jeanine Herman. Postproduction: Culture as Screenplay: How Art Reprograms the World. New York: Lukas & Sternberg, 2005. Print.2 Per Törnberg homepage, www.pertornberg.com

* 10 is the region postcode of Berlin, Germany.

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