tên tôi (2024 – ongoing)

tên tôi is a participatory installation that invites visitors to sit, roll clay beads, and inscribe names to create personalised bracelets. Simple and tactile, the process encourages a slower, more reflective mode of engagement, where naming becomes an act of care, negotiation, and connection.

The work has developed through workshops and gatherings over two years, resulting in a growing archive of over 5,000 handmade beads created by more than 100 participants across multiple countries. Visitors are invited to contribute by making, exchanging, keeping, or leaving bracelets, allowing the work to evolve as a collective narrative of identity and belonging.

Each bead carries the trace of its maker… fingerprints, marks, and imperfection, connecting participants across time and place. Through shared making and conversation, tên tôi transforms the act of naming into an embodied, communal practice grounded in presence, reflection, and exchange.