At the centre of the exhibition are orchids – flowers that appear across the family wedding archives and that Pham gives to his mother on special occasions. Despite their significance, orchids never appeared in his family home while his father was alive.
This quietly resonant absence becomes a point of departure for the project. From this single flower emerges a complex discussion about relationships, emotions, silence, loss and regret. The orchid comes to symbolise the happiness the artist cannot recall witnessing as a child, as well as a tender wish – that the flower might once have bloomed in his family home.
Vườn lan (Orchid Garden) traces what is expressed, imagined and withheld, considering what absence can reveal and how it can shape the stories we inherit and retell.
Banner image: Archival family photograph, c. 1992. Photographer unknown. Image courtesy of Minh-An Pham.
Minh-An Pham is a Vietnamese artist from Sài Gòn who lives and works in Narrm/Melbourne. Through an expanded photographic practice, he explores personal identity, family archives, queer love and the uncertain boundaries between dreams, memories and everyday life. His introspective work considers how emptiness, lived experience and unspoken emotions shape his inner world and relationships with others. Pham graduated from RMIT University’s Bachelor of Photography in 2025.
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