Hoa Dung Clerget’s artistic practice is deeply rooted in her personal experiences as a French-born member of the Vietnamese diaspora. Through her work, she navigates the intersections of labor, migration, and identity, often centring the lived realities of immigrant women within the micro-societies of nail salons. By using materials such as nail gel polish, domestic objects, and textiles, Clerget subverts traditional artistic hierarchies, elevating everyday elements into poignant explorations of memory, femininity, and cultural hybridity.

A graduate of Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art, Clerget initially pursued a career in banking before shifting her focus to fine art. This unconventional path has informed her perspective on systems of value—whether in labor, materiality, or artistic recognition. Her practice embodies a balance between visibility and erasure, questioning how diasporic narratives are preserved, transmitted, and reimagined across generations.

In this conversation with CNTRFLD., Clerget discusses her inspirations, the role of memory in her work, and the evolving themes that shape her artistic journey. She reflects on the challenges and agency of women in contemporary art, the power of subverting mainstream aesthetics, and her ongoing exploration of mythology, particularly the legendary Trung sisters. Through her nuanced approach, Clerget continues to carve out a space for narratives that challenge and expand our understanding of migration, identity, and artistic labor.

CNTRFLD. Your work often engages with the labor of immigrant women and the micro-societies found in nail salons. How does your own Vietnamese heritage and upbringing in France inform this focus?

HC. I grew up in the Vietnamese community in France. We spent our weekends with this wide family. My parents were very active in this community, especially my mother who choreographed traditional dances for the Têt celebration shows and taught ballroom dancing every Sunday at the Foyer Vietnam in Paris. My identity was nourished by this rich culture transmitted by my mother and also my grandmother who came from immigration. Observing these activist and hard-working women was rich in lessons. My Vietnamese heritage and my education in France fuelled my interest in how immigrant women construct their identity and find their place in society, particularly through their work and their quest for emancipation.  When I moved to London, I connected with immigrant women working in a nail salon in Walthamstow. I found among them similar social dynamics to those I had observed in France: an attachment to traditions and community ties as a means of preserving their identity. However, I also saw how this balance is weakened by job insecurity, unstable housing, and restrictive migration policies.

CNTRFLD. As someone born in France to a Vietnamese family, do you see your work as a reflection of your diasporic experience? How do themes of displacement and hybridity shape your artistic practice?

HC. The second generation and those that follow it do not just question their family history, they also question the way in which this past is transmitted, thus questioning the mechanisms of memory. This need to build and preserve both a family and collective memory resonates deeply in me and is reflected in my artistic practice. I explore the different forms of construction of these memories, whether real or shaped by imagination and idealisation. These layers of memory mix, and rather than dissociating them, I welcome them as they emerge, between authenticity and fiction. As Salman Rushdie wrote in Imaginary Homelands (1982): "We will not be able to recover precisely what has been lost ... we will in short create fictions, not real cities or villages, but invisible fictions, imaginary homelands." My work is part of this dynamic of identity reconstruction. I am interested in the liminal space described by Homi Bhabha, this in-between where diasporic identity is constructed through hybridisation, through the refusal of fixed categories and through the subversion of imposed norms. I observe this state of permanent negotiation particularly among immigrant women, whether in the domestic or professional space. They must deal with their own identity while confronting external gazes, clichés, and even exoticisation. My work seeks to make visible this tension between rooting and displacement, between heritage and reinvention.

CNTRFLD. Many of your works incorporate domestic objects and materials with deep cultural significance. How do you approach transforming these everyday items into art, and what stories do they tell?

HC. The objects and materials that I integrate into my work come directly from the everyday lives of Vietnamese families: brooms, plastic stools, fruits like durian, folk songs… Elements that seem innocuous and mundane, but that bear witness to the cultural transmission between generations. My approach consists of diverting these everyday objects to question their status and meaning. Art allows me to reverse situations: on the one hand, by offering visibility to an often-marginalised community; on the other hand, by blurring the hierarchies between art and subculture. Transforming an ordinary object into an art object is to give it a new value and, by extension, to question systems. My collaborative work with KV Duong, presented in No Place Like Home (Part 1), illustrates this approach.  Our architectural installation invited the community and spectators to rethink the notion of home, thus transforming an experience of displacement and invisibility into a safe space of expression and exchange.  In the Durian Revolution series, I sought to reverse the durian’s status as a simple food by paying homage to it through painting. Similarly, by using nail polish as a ready-made and integrating nail art techniques into my painting process, I explored the intersections between craft practices and contemporary art, between subculture and “high” culture.

CNTRFLD. You explore femininity and women’s labor in both artistic and domestic spaces. What are your thoughts on the role of women in contemporary art, and how does your work challenge or expand on these narratives?

HC. I unfortunately find that being a woman in contemporary art still means having to justify oneself, do more, and make visible the work behind each work. Women are often expected to demonstrate the effort made and the labor, where men benefit from a form of automatic legitimacy. In my work, I explore this question through minimalist tapestries inspired by conceptual artists like Buren. However, it is impossible for me not to go beyond this economy of means, because my work carries within it the need to account for the work of immigrant women, often invisible and yet fundamental.

CNTRFLD. Your use of nail gel polish as a primary medium is fascinating. What drew you to this material, and how do you see it functioning beyond its traditional associations?

HC. I chose gel nail polish as my main medium for its unique properties and symbolic dimension. By exploring Nail Art techniques, I divert this material to create works in successive layers, metaphorically evoking the layers of stories of Vietnamese immigrants. Beyond its traditional associations with popular aesthetics, I make it a true painting medium, thus questioning its status in the field of contemporary art. Its versatility is essential in my work: like oil painting, it can be reworked over time, and, like acrylic, it dries instantly with polymerisation. This technical duality allows me to explore new forms of expression while questioning the hierarchies established between artistic materials.

CNTRFLD. You initially pursued a career in banking before studying fine art at Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art. What led you to shift paths, and why did you choose to study in the UK?

HC. I first studied mathematics, which led me to a first job in bank. Studying art after high school was simply not an option in my family context: I had no experience or knowledge of contemporary art, and it was not a path considered possible in my Vietnamese family. It was only after I settled in London that I decided to reorient myself towards contemporary art. The British education system offered greater flexibility for mature students, allowing for less linear paths. In France, it would have been impossible for me to integrate a traditional artistic curriculum.

CNTRFLD. Your project [la galerie libre] plays with identity, collective authorship, and mobility. What inspired its creation, and how has it evolved since its inception?

HC. [la galerie libre] is part of my final year project at Central Saint Martin’s School. Its initial goal was to question the place of the artist in the art ecosystem, playing with the notions of identity, collective authorship, and mobility. The reference is Reena Spaulings, both the heroine of a collective novel and the name of a New York gallery that has become an artist, a collective blurring the boundaries between author, anonymity, and the division of artistic labor. [la galerie libre] has evolved into a methodological tool that I still use today. Like an invisible entity—almost like an imaginary friend—it allows me to adopt other roles, including that of curator. This approach gives me greater freedom of perspective, allowing me to approach some series of works from a more theoretical and global angle. It is particularly valuable in my practice, which is not limited to a single medium or a fixed style.

CNTRFLD. Your work often explores the tension between visibility and erasure, as seen in The Trace and Vietnamese Songs. How do you navigate this balance in your artistic process?

HC. Vietnamese Songs is a collaborative project with my sister, who lives in France. We collected the folk poems that our parents sang to us to make us sleep. Since the Vietnamese alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet, the intonation is based on five distinct accents. I transcribed these poems before erasing the letters, leaving only the accents visible, hand-embroidered on pillowcases. Through this erasure, another form of presence emerges: intonation, familiar voices, the musicality of a language that we do not necessarily understand but whose resonance we still perceive. In The Trace, a similar process is at work. By removing layers of paper or erasing certain elements, what disappears reveals something else: shapes, a texture, a latent presence. The work then becomes a capture of a transitory state, a space where appearance and disappearance coexist in a persistent ambiguity, without ever freezing. This balance between visibility and erasure is therefore central to my work. Rather than simply making disappear, I explore what disappearance allows to emerge – whether it is sounds, memories or traces left by time.

CNTRFLD. What current or upcoming projects are you most excited about, and what directions do you see your work taking in the future?

HC. I currently work on a project around the legend of the Trung sisters. Their story has been continually reinterpreted over the centuries to adapt to different political and ideological contexts. Sometimes as warrior figures embodying an ancient matriarchy before the Chinese domination of the 1st century, sometimes represented as devoted wives seeking to avenge their husbands, their story has evolved according to dominant historical narratives. For me, this legend has always had a feminist resonance, particularly through the way my mother transmitted it to me. Currently, I am working on writing the script for a video mixing reality and myth, an approach that fascinates me as much as it challenges me. Video is a medium that I am still exploring, and it is precisely this element of the unknown that makes this project so stimulating. In the future, I wish to continue this research around folkloric stories and their transmission, by further exploring the intersections between memory, orality and contemporary reinterpretation of myths.

CNTRFLD. What advice would you give to emerging artists, particularly those from diasporic or underrepresented backgrounds, who are trying to navigate the art world today?

HC. I don’t really consider myself the best person to give advice, because I’m in a phase of research and questioning myself. Fortunately, my studies allow me to refocus and structure my practice. There is always a back and forth between doubt and confidence, a balance to be found constantly. What has helped me enormously is being able to collaborate with other artists from the Vietnamese diaspora based in London. The exhibition No Place Like Home (part 2), which KV Duong and I curated at the Museum of the Home, was a founding experience for our community of artists. This type of initiative is essential to gain visibility and create spaces for exchange and representation.

About the artist.

Hoa Dung Clerget is a French-born, London-based artist whose work explores the labor and lived experiences of immigrant women, particularly within the Nail Art subculture and the micro-societies of nail salons. As a member of the Vietnamese diaspora, her practice reflects a deeply personal connection to this ecosystem, translating the labor and narratives of her community into tangible forms. Using nail gel polish as her primary medium, Clerget pushes the boundaries of this material, leveraging its unique chemical properties to craft layered, three-dimensional works. Her pieces engage with themes of beauty and toxicity, displacement and belonging, and the tension between kitsch aesthetics and cultural exoticisation.

Clerget earned her MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art (2019–2021) and her BA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins (2016–2019). Her work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group shows, including Durian Revolution (Studio Chapple, 2023) and Flowers from Nowhere (1B Window Gallery, 2022). She has participated in key exhibitions such as Tươi Sống (Harlesden High Street, 2024), Loose Ends (Thames-Side Gallery, 2024), No Place Like Home (Museum of the Home, 2023), and London Grads Now (Saatchi Gallery, 2021).

Her practice has been recognised through awards and residencies, including the Jerwood Arts New Work Fund (2022), the Circa x Dazed Class of 2021 finalist selection, and a residency at Palazzo Monti (2022). Her work has also gained critical attention, with The Times naming her among the “12 Future Stars of the Art World” in 2021. Through her research-based, materially driven approach, Clerget challenges perceptions of the beauty industry, elevating Nail Art as both an artistic medium and a means of storytelling within diasporic histories.

CREDITS:

⁠Illustration of Hoa Dung Clerget by Maria Chen. 

ALL WORKS: ©Hoa Dung Clerget