Mechelle Bounpraseuth in Art Collector
“Nostalgia is a romanticised idea of the past, and I don’t want to go back there.”
Mechelle Bounpraseuth’s works were included in an essay titled Straight to the Sauce written by Lucia Tường Vy Nguyễn as part of Art Collector’s 100th edition. Grappling, yet also playing with the nuances and vectors of the almost interpersonal diasporic identity, her works tenderly pay homage to the value in the spaces and objects that provided her comfort, solace and sustenance as a child growing up in a white Australia. “Rather than a return, food grants passage for moving forward, for healing from the inherited trauma of migration and survival,” writes Lucia.
Bounpraseuth’s solo exhibition, “My parents didn’t cross the Mekong River so I could shit in a hole” is currently showing at Chalk Horse from 14 April to 7 May 2022.