A Day in the Life: Arlette Quynh-Anh Tran
Reimagining a Third World utopia
By Arlette Quynh-Anh Tran, with Sharrona Valezka
‘A Day in the Life’ is a series by A&M where we invite artists to share a day in their life through images accompanied by brief descriptions.
Arlette Quynh-Anh Tran.
Based in Ho Chi Minh City, Arlette Quynh-Anh Tran wears multiple hats as an artist, curator, writer and researcher. Through her diverse practices, she explores and questions societal issues. Arlette blends creative and academic approaches to offer new perspectives on cultural narratives and histories.
In this ‘A Day in the Life’ feature, Arlette gives us a glimpse into her creative process, the sources of inspiration behind her work, and the themes she seeks to unravel.
‘TUU-Kandinsky’, part of ‘The Unrealized Utopia’ (2023-24) series, view from the garden on a rainy day at Gallery Medium. Photo by Duong Gia Hieu.
The series ‘The Unrealized Utopia’ delves into the intersection of artificial intelligence and my imaginative interpretations of a futuristic utopia or dystopia within the context of the Third World. Visually, this exploration is anchored in images from the Bauhaus Journal from 1926 to 1931. ‘TUU-Kandinsky’ depicts a rusted spaceship emerging from a jungle. The spaceship design evokes the abstract shapes associated with Kandinsky's geometric constellations, creating the imaginative possibilities of technology.
‘The Galaxy of Electrified Heat’ (2024), at Para Site Hong Kong. Photo by Studio Lights On.
The mixed-media installation presents an interplay of projected images that dance across a structure of curved mirrors, resembling a disassembled turbine system. Through the lens of an infrared camera, the video footage transports viewers to the stark beauty of the dry-season landscape surrounding a hydroelectric dam, conjuring an ethereal presence that shifts and morphs throughout the exhibition space like a living creature.
As shimmering, distorting forms ripple and flow, they aim to evoke profound feelings of awe and fear—like standing before a colossal hydroelectric complex, an enormous entity that weaves modern magic into the land while simultaneously siphoning away its essence.
Arlette’s working desk.
This is my working desk, where I communicate thousands of prompts with AI to generate visual fragments for my database. I then remix these fragments with my historical archive research, create test sketches, and paint the digital collages onto found papers.
Cô bóng Thanh, cô bóng Đào and dancer/artist Hoàng Anh. Photo by Duong Gia Hieu.
Behind the scenes, I made the motion capture for my animation ‘Elysium without Shores’, in collaboration with Studio blankNegatives. I worked with múa bóng rỗi artists—a ritualistic queer dance troupe from the Mekong Delta region—to translate their graceful, spectacular movements into animated characters and co-produce the film's soundtrack.
Arlette and her son. Photo by Ta Minh Duc.
When I am not working, I spend time with my family. This is my son and me at the hydroelectric dam during the dry season. I was holding the thermal camera, and he was holding onto me.
Read our interview with Arlette here, where she shared her experiences as a young art practitioner as well as thoughts on the development of Vietnamese contemporary art.
Follow Arlette on Instagram here and visit her website to see more of her works.
Read all A Day in the Life stories here.
All images are courtesy of the artist, unless otherwise stated.
About the Artist
Arlette Quỳnh-Anh Trần is an art labourer based in Saigon. She creates art both collectively and individually and also curates and writes. Her artworks combine politics and sci-fi aesthetics through the use of animation, 3D design, historical archives, and architecture. Arlette is fascinated by the idea of a futuristic Third World utopia where political ideals are reimagined, and humans and non-human beings coexist and merge. She presents a non-linear and absurd interpretation of modern histories that challenges the dominant post-Cold War narratives about the Third World.
