By Ryan O’Connell
THE nephew of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Footscray painter Van Thanh-Rudd, has been selected to join a tribute to one of Vietnam’s most popular and versatile dishes, Pho, as part of Melbourne’s annual Food and Wine Festival.
Pho, typically white rice noodles in beef broth with beef or chicken and various herbs, is the subject of an art exhibition entitled I Love Pho, touring from Sydney’s Casuala Powerhouse Art Centre, and appearing at the Footscray Community Arts Centre on 22 February.
The Footscray Community Arts Centre is playing host to six Vietnamese artists touring with the exhibition, as well as inviting two Footscray artists to contribute their work. Recipes, poems and paintings will be featured as artists will apply their creative energies to Pho, both as a food and as a metaphor for Vietnamese history and identity.
Mr Thanh-Rudd and Le Thua Tien have been selected by curator Cuong Phu Le as two local residents to join I Love Pho, while it stops in Footscray.
“It was not long after I’d done touring of a previous project around Australia and Cuong happened to remember my work and that I was half Vietnamese,” Mr Thanh-Rudd said.
Artists were instructed they could contribute whatever they liked as long as it made a direct reference to Pho. Known for his controversial themes, Van was able to construct a political message using the popular dish as a metaphor.
“Basically my piece is called Resist with Pho, I was inspired by the exhibition being part of the Food and Wine Festival I thought there was a lot to work with in regards to countries getting cut off from food trade by embargos when they oppose the ideas from imperialist nations,” he said.
“I certainly hope it highlights a few points about the relationship people have with food and also the reality that lots of people are forced into political situations where they cannot have access to food.”
The ‘I Love Pho’ exhibition can be seen at the Footscray Community Arts Centre from 22 February until 10 April.
