Doba Nation: Perth Festival 2025

With her spectacular new installation, Doba Nation, Dharawal/Bulli-based artist Mai Nguyễn-Long transports the viewer to a sprawling archipelago of hand-formed ceramic sculptures, now on view at John Curtin Gallery, WA.

Assembled on-site in a process akin to live storytelling and emerging spotlit against the moody scenography of a darkened exhibition space, Nguyễn-Long’s monumental installation is a landmark achievement and a dazzling centrepiece of the 2025 Perth Festival‘s artistic program.

In this dynamic assemblage, the artist’s distinctive Vomit Girl figures coalesce with the cylindrical painted ceramic forms she calls Doba. These derive their appearance from metal bomb shell casings that some residents of rural Vietnam have repurposed for practical and spiritual use.

“In this new body of work, Mai pays particular attention to brushwork illustration on the surfaces of her ceramic objects, which borrow from the southern Vietnamese folk religious motifs of her father’s birthplace, merged with personalised symbology,” notes the exhibition curator, Lia McKnight.

Co-presented by our offsite projects platform, Michael Reid Beyond, Doba Nation arrives soon after Nguyễn-Long’s landmark installation at the 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, The Vomit Girl Project, which is showing at Brisbane’s QAGOMA until 27 April.

All works featured within the artist’s Doba Nation exhibition are available to acquire from Michael Reid Sydney, with select pieces already accessible online and additional works available by request. We encourage collectors to contact danielsoma@michaelreid.com.au to request details – including availability, size and price – for any sculptures not shown online or in our digital catalogue.