TOUCH my
surrogate body

Pretty lover of yesterday is a handmade red, pink, and white rug boldly embedded with the phrase ‘out of sight but still in mind’. Acting as the artist’s surrogate body, the rug symbolises an inert exploration into the domestic personal architecture of the self as it pertains to personal and familial conflict. The evocative statement stitched into the rug is drawn from a poem, which is displayed as twelve audio files on an iPod mini. The poem deals with reckoning queerness, an ostracised identity, within the larger framework of an already politicised culturally hybrid identity, whilst also subtly referencing the manifestation of past trauma in romantic relationships. Stitched with their grandmother’s yarn, Nguyen-Hunt expresses a desire for queer liberation, and the tenderness they yearn for from family. Created as an ode to past queer lovers that were forced to remain in secrecy, the artist deals with the sacrifices they must make to maintain peace with both cultural and queer identities.