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Kwinnie Lê

Taal , performance , Dekolonisatie , Community , Artistiek onderzoek

Kwinnie Lê is an artist, researcher, poet and shapeshifter. Drawing from mythology, folklore and oral histories, they situate ancestral traditions within contemporary urban life, aiming to re-suture narratives of classification. Currently, they’re investigating the revival and revitalization movement of traditional tattoo practices. "The Land of the Tattooed", the name borrowed from an ancient state of Vietnam, is an ongoing world-building project that employs semi-fictional narratives and critical speculation to render tattoo histories within a contemporary art canon. This body of work engages with a myriad of subjects such as its historical utility for colonial classification, the racial stratification of the ornament and the planetary crisis. Although rooted in erased histories, fiction becomes a tool to arrive at uncompromising hope. As a practitioner of skin marking, their work aligns with the Vietnamese ancestral tradition specifically. In 2023, they were awarded the Doesjenel Prize. Recent shows include Asian Art Museum (San Francisco, USA), MK Gallery (Milton Keynes, UK), Hotel Maria Kapel (Hoorn, NL) and Holland Festival (Amsterdam, NL).

The land of the tattooed: Birthed from the belly of a bomb (2025)
The land of the tattooed: Birthed from the belly of a bomb (2025) - The origins of the Vietnamese tattoo traditions are tied to the origin myth of its peoples, signifying as a marker of identity and ancestral connection. This chapter, manifested through 14 paintings, serves as one of the origin myths of "the land of the tattooed" and reconciles the birth of the tradition with the diasporic experience to imagine how its revival can overcome reductive narratives. It proposes traditions as witnesses of history and a notion of origins that, instead of fundamentalism and borders, is guided by ancestral love. An origin myth for a people half here, half there. The birth of a diaspora. And the rebirth of the tradition.
đá và hoa hồng (2025)
đá và hoa hồng (2025) - Within "the land of the tattooed", I use a secret, self-developed script to tell stories on the textiles. The way this can be read is only passed on through oral history. Like a rumour, this knowledge spreads among the audience. This script refers to the secluded nature of knowledge, much like in many tattoo traditions, where knowledge was often reserved for a specific group or lineage. In stark contrast to Western epistemologies, that often conceives knowledge as transparent and to be widely dispersed, I take a position akin to what Édouard Glissant describes as 'the right to opacity'. The other possibility is by decoding them. “đá và hoa hồng” is a series of engraved gongs that serve as a decoding tool for how to read the script in my work. The "rosetta stone" of my world-building project. The gongs were developed at AirHue in Hue, Vietnam (2025), marking the first introduction of my practice to the arts scene in Vietnam.
The land of the tattooed: Ungodly Beasts
The land of the tattooed: Ungodly Beasts (2024) - "Ungodly Beasts" delves into the demonization of tattoo traditions through Christian teachings. Told through fourteen tapestries suspended in the former chapel, the story refers to historical instances of the demonization of tattoo traditions. Yet, they also tell of hope and reclamation as ancestors speak towards their descendants. The installation was activated through gatherings and rituals
The Land of the tattooed: Ungodly Beasts Altar
The Land of the tattooed: Ungodly Beasts Altar (2024) - The altar, part of the installation, is made to honor people from a specific kind of human zoo: the exhibitions of enslaved tattooed people. In these exhibitions, traditional markings (colonially known as tattoos) were highlighted and essentialized as a signifier of the "primitive" non-Western. One of the most infamous examples is "Prince Giolo", a commoner taken from Mindanao (Philippines), who was put on display in London during the late 17th century under the enslavement of William Dampier. This display became a catalyst for a wider trend of showcasing tattooed people across Western Europe and North America, stripped of their dignity and turned into a spectacle. The earliest documented instance of such an exhibition, however, dates back to 1566, the Netherlands. French sailors kidnapped an unnamed Inuit woman and child (allegedly aged 20 and 7) and were put on display in The Hague and Antwerp. Found woodcuts, to print promotional broadsheets for the display, emphatically religion and described her markings as strange and unnatural. These accounts falsely claimed her traditional markings as heathen, a sign of cannibalism and to identify as the property of men. After these exhibitions, the fates of the woman and her child remain unknown. This altar was made to commemorate their lives. Maybe if you are there, in any of these cities, or anywhere really, you can take a moment to mourn their lives. To dignify their lives. To carry them forward into our memories.
Whispers from the Past (2024)
Whispers from the Past (2024) - "Whispers from the past" is an ongoing shapeshifting performance that departs from the focal element of rhythm in traditional markings. Participants are invited to join in creating ink through pestles and mortars. The performance is a meditation on oral histories as an ephemeral device for passing on ancestral knowledge, the specificity of who receives agency to pass on knowledge and to whom knowledge is passed on to. Like a game of whispers, the ending of each performance becomes the point of departure for the following performance.
Marking the rhythm i.c.w. Nash Caldera. (2022-now)
Marking the rhythm i.c.w. Nash Caldera. (2022-now) - In this series of performances, we mark each other with the same rhythm, grasping back to the importance of communal principles within traditional tattoos. With each performance, the format builds upon the previous performance. Build on our longstanding friendship, we connect our body through through a meditative act and extend the line with each performance.
The land of the tattooed: In this land (2022).
The land of the tattooed: In this land (2022). - "The Land of the Tattooed" is a world-building project that derives its name from the historical ancient state of Vietnam: Van Lang, which roughly translates to "the land of the tattooed." As the name suggests, everyone was covered from head to toe in tattoos. The origin of this practice was mainly attributed to those who worked on the water, tattooing their entire bodies to resemble sea monsters. This form of tattooing was an attempt to be safe at sea, a form of sacred protection, and to live in harmony with all creatures in the water and the natural world. The mythologies, folk tales, and oral histories are (re)inscribed in this semi-fictional state. "In this land" marks the first tapestry of "The land of the tattooed", speaking this land into existence
Of Myriad Origins (2022) - "Of Myriad Origins" is a video performance that grapples with queer monstrosity through the lens of traditional body modification, such as tattooing and teeth blackening, and the demonization of the practice during colonialism. Departing from the origins of the Vietnamese tattoo traditions, of whom people who worked in the water would tattoo themselves with scales and eyes of water monster as a form of sacred protection, the performance oscillates between monstrosity as a perceived threat and as a rendering of hybrid identity.
Reparations to Văn Lang (2021)
Reparations to Văn Lang (2021) - "reparations to Văn Lang" is a performance that offers reparations towards Văn Lang (the land of the tattooed)in the context of an art fair. With each redistribution made, one letter of tattooing is contributed towards the performance that would ultimately spell out Văn Lang. The performance remains unfinished
c?o gió - "C?o gió" (Scrape the wind) incorporates an ancient Vietnamese practice where the skin is scraped with a coin or spoon with in medicinal oil. This ritual is based on the old belief that unexplained illnesses are caused by the touch of 'bad wind.' Even today, post-traumatic stress disorders among Vietnamese refugees is interpreted as conditions of wind. This video contains fragments of a conversation between the artist and their parents in the background.

Textile Bienale: Interwoven futures

Datum:
Locatie: Museum Rijswijk
In samenwerking met: curated by Julia Geerlings

Utopias and dystopias have captured the imagination for centuries. In the Textile Biennial 2025. Interwoven Futures, twenty (inter)national artists explore ideal worlds and warning doom scenarios through innovative and inspiring textile artworks. From delicately woven to strikingly colourful, this versatile exhibition presents a colourful array of works about the social and ecological challenges we face.

https://museumrijswijk.nl/english.php

The Land of the Tattooed: Ungodly Beasts

Datum:
Locatie: Hotel Maria Kapel

"The land of the tattooed: Ungodly Beasts" is my first solo show presenting the chapter of the same name. This chapter delves into the demonization of tattoo traditions through Christian teachings. Told through fourteen tapestries suspended in the former chapel, the story refers to historical instances of the demonization of tattoo traditions. Yet, they also tell of hope and reclamation as ancestors speak towards their descendants. The installation was activated through gatherings and rituals.

https://www.hotelmariakapel.nl/nl/project-2024/project1

Print and Play x Boijmans Hillevliet

Datum:
Locatie: Boijmans Hillevliet

Deze editie van Print and Play staat in het teken van Rotterdam-Zuid en de jonge talenten rond Boijmans Hillevliet. Begin 2020 is op Hillevliet 90 een luisterpost gestart waar Boijmans in dialoog gaat met de buurt, collega’s en makers over kunst, cultuur en het leven in de stad. In deze uitzonderlijke tijden worden creatieve mogelijkheden gezocht om makers in Hillevliet en bij jouw thuis een podium te bieden.

https://www.boijmans.nl/print-play-x-boijmans-hillevliet

EN NU

Datum:
Locatie: Pictura

De expositie met zo’n 45 deelnemers gaat over werk dat past binnen thema’s die NU spelen, NU aan de hand zijn. Verwacht een open, onderzoekende, experimentele tentoonstelling die per weekend anders is.

WKNDX

Datum:
Locatie: Witte Rook
https://witterook.nu/artikelen/sewing-skins-by-kwinnie-le/

The New Current

Datum:
Locatie: Cruise Terminal

#SoftMarket

Locatie: Frank Taal Gallery

My broken tongue

Locatie: Galerie Lecq

Neverland Cinema: Ways of Watching Together

Locatie: Showroom Mama
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