A brush with... Sung Tieu

About this episode

Sung Tieu talks to Ben Luke about her influences—from writers to film-makers, and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped her life and work. Tieu’s work uses her own personal history to explore various conditions in contemporary society. Born in Hai Duong, Vietnam, in 1987, she now lives in Berlin. This interface between her Vietnamese background and her present environment—in the broadest sense of the term—forms the structure for a wideranging, materially rich investigation of migration, labour and capitalism, Cold War and post-Cold War European society and culture, and post-colonial life more widely. She explores these complex subjects with a language that acknowledges yet offers a critique of recent traditions in Western art, including Conceptual Art, Minimalism and Post-Minimalism. This distinctive approach, allied to her ability to operate across diverse disciplines, forms and scales and her sensitivity to space and site, led to her being commissioned to respond to the German Pavilion in the 61st Venice Biennale. She reflects at length on her work in Venice, discusses the balance of intimacy and investigative rigour in her work, and how she can