Prune Phi’s Otherworld Communication by Taous Dahmani

“Because grief, at its worst, is unreal. And it calls for a surreal response.”
Ocean Vuong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, 2019.

In some families, heirlooms are passed down through generations—cherished objects infused with deep sentimental value. Yet, in diasporic families, heirlooms rarely take on a malleable form; they belong to the realm of emotions, of feelings, and at times, of trauma. Rather than trinkets, displaced generations inherit the weight of grief for a homeland lost, a longing for what once was, and the silence that envelops the unspoken. Some families pass down stories, and their narratives are slowly distorted with each telling. Others, shaped by the circumstances of departure or arrival, quietly set aside any memory of roots once nurtured elsewhere. Colonial occupation, war-torn countries, and their profound societal aftermath create a cumbersome heirloom of those displaced and is carried through generations who heard, imagined, or unearthed the traces of these journeys and adaptations. These inherited fragments compelled visual artist Prune Phi to become a storyteller—at once an inevitable burden and a profound creative possibility. Born out of the silence of untold stories, Phi’s role took shape, weaving between bits of reality and pieces of fiction. Phi’s work acknowledges the inescapable weight of transnational history, especially the legacy of displacement and colonial trauma, while also envisioning a possibility of transcending it.

The paternal lineage of French visual artist Prune Phi is woven into a history that traces back to Vietnam. In the mid-1800s, Vietnam was absorbed into “French Indochina”, marking the beginning of Vietnamese migration to France—a movement that intensified with the recruitment of Vietnamese soldiers and laborers during World War I. Migration continued after the First Indochina War, as France opened its doors to those displaced by the country’s division into North and South. But the most significant wave of Vietnamese immigration came in 1975, following the fall of Saigon and the unification of Vietnam under communist rule. Today, the Vietnamese community in France is among the largest Southeast Asian populations in Europe. Many settled in urban centers, while Prune Phi’s family found home in Carcassonne in the south of France. The newcomers often faced hardship and discrimination, yet managed to build close-knit communities. Phi’s grandfather built his around his Vietnamese restaurant named La Rizière (The Rice Field). In the Phi family, men are few with words—pain and conflicts are kept within, while culinary traditions are honored and passed down. Two generations later, Prune Phi transformed this silence into her creative language, weaving together memory and invention. And what better way to navigate absence than by posing our most urgent questions to those who are no longer here?

In Otherworld Communication, Prune Phi envisions a fictional company that appears to manufacture votive objects from cardboard. Visitors are free to decide when to burn these humble offerings following the artist’s performance. The belief is that, through the burning process, the objects will reach loved ones who have crossed into the beyond, ensuring their well-being and protection. Rooted in an ancestral custom — known as cúng ông bà, or ancestor worship ceremonies — of incinerating votive objects—traditionally paper symbolizing money—the ritual transforms with each generation. Indeed, the ritual keeps evolving and adapting and like some of her younger Vietnamese peers, Phi infuses the tradition with new technologies and luxuries goods. Though its origins lie in Taoist and Confucian beliefs, the practice has taken on diverse local forms across Vietnam. In Phi’s Franco-Vietnamese diasporic context, however, it acquires a different significance. Shaped by the experiences of migration, displacement, and the adaptation to new environments, this ritual becomes a bridge between the past and the present and transcends time and place. Through her reenactment of this tradition, Phi not only honors her ancestors but also conjures the silences that have long defined her lineage. With Otherworld Communication, she exorcises the fragmented memories and unresolved grief that have lingered through generations, weaving them into new artistic, spiritual and fictional narratives. In doing so, she breathes life into what was once unspoken, transforming loss into a visual language that speaks across both personal and collective histories. Otherworld Communication speaks to the complexities of diasporic life, where the longing for connection remains, and the forging of it constantly shift. What was once buried or forgotten—whether pain, history, or memory—emerges as visual language and artistic expression. Otherworld Communication becomes a ritual of repair and reconnection. Through the fusion of visual art, performance, ritual, and faith, Phi prompts us to question how we connect, communicate and what we choose to believe. The votive objects become intricate vessels of memory, offering a poignant commentary on the nature of inheritance—what we leave behind, and what we carry forward. With Otherworld Communication, Phi redefines the ritual of remembrance, transforming absence into a space for reflection and renewal.

In On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Vietnamese-American poet, essayist, and novelist Ocean Vuong wrote, “Because grief, at its worst, is unreal. And it calls for a surreal response.” Otherworld Communication is Prune Phi’s own “surreal response,” quite literally. In this work, Phi explores the grief surrounding the loss of family members, severed roots, and the erosion of culture, not through direct representation, but via an imagined, otherworldly ritual infused with elements of science fiction. Her ritual transcends the boundaries of reality, crafting a space where grief is not only acknowledged but transformed, embracing fluidity, complexity, and the layered depths of emotions.

Born in 1991 in Paris, Prune Phi grew up in the south of France. She is a visual artist and currently lives and works in Marseille. After earning her Master’s degree in Creation, Theory, and Artistic Mediation, as well as completing a one-year residency at the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design in England, she graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie d’Arles (ENSP, France) in 2018 with a Master’s degree in Photography. She is currently a resident at the Ateliers de la Ville de Marseille.

Her work has been exhibited at the Hessel Museum of Art CCS Bard, Annandale-On-Hudson in the United States (2025), the Jeu de Paume Museum (2025), the Carré d’Art for La Contemporaine de Nîmes (2024), FRAC Île-de-France (2024), the Magasin CNAC in Grenoble (2022-23), the 66th Salon de Montrouge (2022), the Friche la Belle de Mai in Marseille (2022), the Minnesota Museum of American Art, St. Paul (United States, 2021-22), La Villette in Paris (2021), the Fictions Documentaires Festival in Carcassonne (2021), the Circulation(s) Festival at Le 104 in Paris (2019), and the Rencontres de la Photographie d’Arles (2018).

Dr. Taous Dahmani (she/her) is a London-based French, British and Algerian art historian, writer and curator specializing in photography. Dahmani curated the 2022 Louis Roederer Discovery Award at Les Rencontres d’Arles in France. In October 2024, she curated two themed group exhibitions at the Jaou Photo Biennale in Tunis, Tunisia. The following month, she unveiled a solo exhibition of SMITH at NOUA in Bodø, Norway. For FEP, she is curating ‘Anastasia Samoylova: Adaptation’ at the Saatchi Gallery.

Her writing is featured in photobooks published by Loose Joints, Textuel, Tate Publishing and Chose Commune, as well as in magazines like The British Journal of Photography, FOAM, GQ, Aperture, Camera Austria, 1000 Words Magazine.

She is the associate editor of the award winning book Shining Lights. Black women Photographers in 1980’s-90’s Britain (MACK/Autograph ABP, 2024). She joined LCC (UAL) as an Associate Lecturer in January 2023.