Michael Workman

Born in a refugee camp in Hong Kong, Ngo's parents, originally from Vietnam, fled to North Carolina. Ngo studied biology at the University of North Carolina, taking a few art classes along the way until she realized "that this whole world of conceptual art existed." It wasn't long before she'd shifted majors; she recently completed her graduate studies in the Art Institute's art and technology department. She describes her usually wearable art as concerned with "protection and paranoia but also this kind of childlike playfulness." Along the way, Ngo's work has "often had a political subtext but it's becoming much more social for me." For Ngo, that evolving social context involves idealizations of war and peace. But disaster and the challenges of basic survival have provided her with a clear direction recently, as demonstrated in her "Escape Pod" series. As a member of Tactonic, an art collaborative with members Joshua Rosenstock and Matthew Steinke, Ngo developed a line of clothing that transform into survival tools. Her escape pod comes packaged in "a handy travel case" stuffed with four jackets, a skirt and a fan.

But don't let the strongly utilitarian overtones of her work fool you: nobody will find protection from a germ-warfare attack in her skirt bubble. "Probably if it rained on you, it would suck," she says. Ngo sees her escape pod as providing a basic kind of psychological protection from the lure of apocalyptic or utopian ideologies, a place to get away or escape into when the world gets just a little to scary. And she'll need it. Having situated her work at the oft-troubled border between art and fashion, that survival instinct may indeed carry her far from the comforts of home.

(2004-10-13)

Also by Michael Workman

Big brothers
Carrying brushes four feet in length that at first glance could be mistaken for spears or clubs, two shirtless Chinese men with long, flowing black manes of hair...
(2004-10-06)

The Barack and Alan Show
It's hard not to think of the aisle between the pews as the much-touted great divide between the two political parties
(2004-10-06)

Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle
In the middle of the Fern Room at the Garfield Park Conservatory, an architect plays the role of nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer
(2004-10-06)

Eye Exam
Über-conceptualist Marcel Duchamp serves as the source for the "Infra-thin" show's conceptual theme
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Tip of the Week
(2004-09-29)

Eye Exam
(2004-09-29)

Chicago--yes, Chicago--Fashion Week
(2004-09-14)

Eye Exam
(2004-09-14)

Eye Exam
(2004-09-08)

Eye Exam
(2004-08-31)

Tip of the Week
(2004-08-25)

Eye Exam
(2004-08-25)

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