Growing up in the suburbs of Adelaide, Makeda Duong always knew that ‘being an artist’ was something she wanted to pursue. That childhood intention became a reality and to date as a textile artist, she’s exhibited locally on Kaurna Land, South Australia and interstate. Makeda’s practice explores themes of racial identity, gender, sexuality and mental health through the creation of textile works that challenge the notion of knitted, embroidered and stitched objects as merely ‘arts and crafts’. What she produces is empowering, witty and thought-provoking works of art that often draw from her own lived experience as a Vietnamese Australian woman but speak to the shared experiences of many. In this interview, Makeda generously provides insight into her journey as an artist; the story behind her award-winning artwork ‘Mixed Race Sweater’; and how she navigates a way through challenging times.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your creative practice.
Ever since I knew what an artist was, I wanted to be one. I even have a drawing on my bedroom wall that I did as a child for school that says ‘When I grow up I want to be an artist’. I graduated from art school in 2013, and I’ve been making and showing work since. These days I like to joke that my artwork is basically an extravagant way for me to complain about stuff. But it is true that if I’m having difficulty with something personal, or if something is bothering me, I tend to make work about it. Themes include anything from gender, race, mental health, even experiences in the workplace. I’ve experienced chronic pain, and I live with a mental illness so this comes up in my work from time to time.
How did you start your creative practice and why?
I started by going to art school with the intention of learning to paint or draw. When I discovered that artists could use textiles to make art, I threw those to the wayside and dedicated myself to specialising in that instead. There’s something comforting and slow about the medium, but I also find it to be an exciting area conceptually, especially since there’s so many gendered stereotypes surrounding it. The first conceptual works I ever made that started off my practice were about the history of embroidery and how it’s linked to the suppression of female sexuality. I was very focussed on the domestic history of ‘crafts’ like embroidery and knitting, and this was a consistent thread in my practice for a few years. I’ve always been a feminist killjoy, ever since childhood, this definitely comes across in the work. I liked the reactions I got when I combined these notions of frilly pink femininity with a message that was confronting. I was definitely on a mission to show that textile art wasn’t just ‘craft’, that it wasn’t easy, and that you could make challenging work with it. This is partly due to the attitudes that I observed at art school; that particular institution was really devaluing textiles as an art form. Now I know that the work speaks for itself, and I don’t have to defend it anymore. I feel like I’ve been able to move past those kinds of themes and make whatever I want.
Where did you grow up and has it influenced what you create?
I grew up in Adelaide, in a suburb close to the city, called Brompton. It’s one of those suburbs that was considered a poor area a few decades ago, but has since been gentrified. There’s a lot of trendy apartment buildings and cafes around the area now. I went to a public school. In terms of how this influenced my work, I’ve only recently started making work about class and economic status. My family weren’t even working class, we were welfare class. So I definitely look at things through this kind of lens. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t poverty but it certainly wasn’t privileged. My father is from southern Vietnam, so that also placed me at a point of difference. I made some work recently about my father’s political attitudes coming from post-war Vietnam, and how this collides with my political stances. I was working this very competitive sales job, I was getting very sick of capitalism and dreaming of alternatives. In these kinds of customer service focussed works, that little poor kid in me is definitely there. I think a lot of artists struggle with having ‘chosen’ a career path that isn’t lucrative, and doing so much unpaid labour.
Tell us about your past creative projects. What has been a highlight so far?
A major highlight would have been the ‘Mixed Race Sweater’. I made it for a solo show that developed out of a residency at Nexus Arts, they focus on culturally and linguistically diverse artists. It’s the second work I’ve made about my racial identity, and it still only feels like I’m just scratching the surface. It’s a knitted sweater with a collection of remarks and questions me and my sister get from strangers about our racial appearance, knitted into the fabric. ‘Where are you from?’ to ‘You’re so exotic’ to one of my favourites ‘What part of New Zealand are you from?’. The front is in the colours of the Australian flag, and the back is the South Vietnamese flag colours – the South Vietnamese flag is actually banned in Vietnam, it’s seen as anti communist. The reactions I get to this work have been very interesting. They range from ‘Do people really say these awful racist things to you?’ to ‘So is that an offensive thing to ask?’. Other mixed race people have responded differently. ‘Oh my gosh, this is my life!’. I’m glad they can see their experience reflected back at them in the work. Being racially ambiguous or having a ‘racially complex’ background can sometimes be lonely.
Another highlight is ‘Shit Customers Say’ a giant knitted receipt containing real quotes from real customers, a collection of myself and friends’ experiences working customer service. I wanted it to be absurd and funny, not just a catalogue of awful abuse. A lot of stuff about money and class just ended up creeping in though. I wanted to make a statement about how customer service roles are perceived as ‘low skill’, lesser, not ‘real jobs’, there’s this idea that they’re always temporary, and that anyone could do them. Which are all fallacies. During the pandemic, supermarket and service station staff were so desperately needed, and yet they are exposed to some of the worst kind of vitriol and disrespect.
Who or what inspires your practice?
I suppose it’s my own experience that inspires most of my practice, as self-centred as that sounds. But there have been historical works that I’ve drawn inspiration from. In 1830, a 17 year old domestic servant called Elizabeth Parker embroidered a large cross stitch piece of writing, in secret, almost as a confession or a record of her experience at the hands of her abusive employer. The piece begins with ‘As I cannot write I put this down simply and freely’ and ends by trailing off with the phrase ‘What will become of my soul…’ This piece becomes even more significant when you think about the fact that during this time period, embroidery was seen as something women did as part of a domestic role, fulfilling their duty as delicate, homely housewives, mothers and daughters. The act of using it in this way was quite transgressive. Using stitching to record what can’t be spoken, or even written, is something I’ve found extremely powerful. I’m inspired by the women that came before me, who didn’t have the opportunity to become artists, or who suffered with mental illnesses that weren’t treated properly at the time. They languished in mental asylums and were showcased as ‘hysterical’ patients. I often think that if I’d been born centuries ago, that could have been my fate too.
What gets you through challenging creative/ industry times?
I’ve actually been doing some work with my therapist about how not to beat myself up when I feel like I’m not doing enough art related work. I tend to start feeling like a failure, or that I’m stalled in my career. I’m susceptible to depression when this happens so I have to be really careful when those thoughts and feelings start to creep in. I think this fear of failure is part of what keeps me going, even though that’s not really a healthy thing! There’s a temptation to channel every hardship in my life into my artwork, so I have to be a bit selective about what I choose to make work about, and what I actually need to reserve for therapy. I used to think that no matter what happened to me, my art would save me. Now I know that’s not true, I actually have to look after myself and keep myself healthy and content so that I can keep making art. Challenging industry times are a bit different. If it’s the government cutting arts funding again, that just makes me angry and fuels me to keep going. It makes me want to keep creating work in defiance. I got through the COVID lockdowns okay because I usually make work from home, and I had a lot to do because I had a solo show coming up. I felt lucky compared to most artists/arts workers.
Whose work are you digging at the moment?
I really like Abdul-Rahman Abdullah’s work, he had some pieces on display in the Free State Biennial at AGSA, which was amazing. I like the way his childhood memories have been transformed into an experience for the viewer, which is immersive and sensory. I found visitors were quite emotionally affected by the work. I also really like his brother Abdul Abdullah’s work, which deals with ideas of the ‘other’. I saw this installation he had in the 2020 Biennial, of a stage set up that was totally empty except for a lone figure in the audience with a monkey’s face and hands. I found it really intriguing. His work has been censored, quite viciously actually. I’ve been really liking Kate Just’s work as well lately, and Min Wong’s is fantastic too. The way she interprets contemporary new age culture is fascinating. There’s too many local artists I love too to mention!
What future projects are you looking forward to?
What’s weird about this answer is that there’s some work I’m dying to make at the moment that isn’t for any future or current projects. For the actual projects I have, I’ve been having trouble with procrastination! I’d like to make some more work about mental illness, there’s one I’m partway through making that’s about my experiences with the mental health system, and how it actually took many tries over several years for me to even get diagnosed and access proper treatment. It’s like my illness had to worsen to the point where I was gravely unwell before mental health professionals were able to actually help me. I’m thinking of giving it the title ‘Getting Help’, because getting help isn’t actually anywhere near as easy as people think it is. Regardless, those of us with mental illnesses have to keep trying, it’s a matter of survival. I also want to make more work following on from the ‘Mixed Race Sweater’. I want to delve a bit more into my feelings around my cultural identity, even though this has been a difficult task emotionally.
Where can we find and follow you online?
I have a website, www.makedaduong.com (having a unique name comes in handy with this kind of thing!), and my instagram handle is @makedaduong. I also have a Facebook page www.facebook.com/makedaduong.