A man, tired of his frail father breaking rice bows, hollows out a coconut shell for him to eat out of. When he sees his own son playing with a coconut, he ask the child what he is doing, ‘I’m making you a bowl for you’ the child replies. The man gives his father a rice bowl.

The above Vietnamese parable goes to the core of the cultural values with which we (Phuong Ngo & Hwafern Quach) have been raised. It illustrates the importance placed on family and Confucian concepts of filial piety, introduced to Vietnam during 1000 years of Chinese occupation. This work examines the concept of ‘Asian Values’ in a Western context, exploring what this parable means to those who live within the hyphen, and what these male centric stories mean to a second-generation Asian-Australian woman.

Slippage is a collaborative practice by contemporary artists, Hwafern Quach and Phuong Ngo. Slippage, examines the cycles of history in conjunction with current geopolitical and economic issues through the lens of vernacular cultures, artifacts and language.