Image: Dai Trang Nguyen, Threads of Life (detail), 2025, yarns, repurposed fabric and wire, dimensions variable, courtesy of the artist
October 17 - November 28, 2025
Opening event: Friday, October 31, 5:30-7:30pm
Gallery II, 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta
Free entry, all welcome
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You can find Dai Trang’s exhibition in The Mill’s Gallery II, located at 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta (Adelaide).
Gallery II is open Monday-Friday, 10am-4pm.
Accessibility
The Mill has two entrances, the main entrance on the corner of Angas and Gunson Street and an accessible entrance further down Angas Street.
Both doors are locked from the outside, there is a doorbell on the main door that will alert The Mill team. They will meet you at the accessible entrance to welcome you into the building.
The Mill has concrete flooring throughout with no internal steps and a disability toilet on site.
Read more in-depth information on our accessibility web page.
We are excited to present alONEness - một, a new exhibition of sculptures and installations by Vietnamese artist Dai Trang Nguyen.
Developed through our Kayangan Residency, with support from donors Geoff Martin and Sorayya Mahmood Martin, the exhibition explores identity, connection, and the spaces between, using mindfulness as a compass. một, meaning “one” in Vietnamese, reflects Dai Trang’s journey through aloneness, loneliness, and oneness. The work flows from a place of authenticity and vulnerability, where the tension between solitude and connection becomes visible.
Through large-scale textile-based sculptures, she transforms the gallery into a multifaceted environment. The installation embodies the solidity of being alone, the struggles of isolation and the universal longing for connection. It invites viewers to reflect on their own experiences of being alone and together, offering a quiet moment of shared understanding amidst life’s chaos.
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một, meaning “one” in Vietnamese, reflects both individuality and unity. This exhibition captures a journey of contracting and expanding through aloneness, loneliness and oneness. Emerging from years of solitary practice, it marks a first opening reaching toward life while allowing life to flow through. It gathers all the “ones” held within aloneness, loneliness, oneness and the spaces in between.
The installation embodies shifting states of being: the solidity of solitude, the hollowness of isolation and the universal longing for connection. It arises from a place of authenticity and vulnerability where the tension between solitude and togetherness becomes visible. At times, overwhelm and emptiness press in so strongly that all one can do is sit, breathe and simply be. In these moments, the work becomes a shelter, a gentle embrace holding as it is held. What emerges from within returns to envelop like the endless interwoven cycles of life.
Each piece is a living record, shaped by the moment and made tangible through materials at hand. Wire reaches outward, bold and visible; thread folds inward, delicate and almost imperceptible. In moments of enoughness, the canvas opens into space and simplicity.
Created slowly and intuitively with mindful awareness, these works are marks of presence, connecting with space, people and the more-than-human world. They invite reflection on being alone and together, offering space for shared understanding amidst the ever-changing flow of life.
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Dai Trang Nguyen is a Vietnamese artist and designer based in Kaurna Country, with a creative journey spanning Vietnam, the UK and Australia. Originally trained in graphic design, her practice has evolved from structured precision to a meditative, intuitive approach rooted in mindfulness, presence and the unfolding of each moment.
During the solitude of COVID-19, art became her sanctuary and a guide for self-understanding, leading to her first solo exhibition in Vietnam and inspiring her move to South Australia in 2022 to pursue a Master’s in Contemporary Art. Since then, her practice has deepened through introspection and experimentation, expanding materially from digital illustration into tactile forms.
Living far from home has enriched her connection to her Eastern heritage. Influenced by Zen Buddhist roots and her experience as a migrant, Dai Trang’s process is slow and embodied, embracing making as meditation - each gesture responding to internal and external conditions. Working with textiles, found objects and mixed media, she creates contemplative sculptures, wall pieces and installations that reflect life’s fluidity, impermanence and interconnectedness.
Her Kayangan residency at The Mill Adelaide marked a first step toward relational, community-connected making, opening her process to place, people and the more-than-human world, while remaining grounded in herself through mindfulness.
This exhibition has support from
