The sound of the Vietnamese Đông Sơn drum reverberates across two millennia of religion, war, exile and return. An instrument that gave name to a culture (the Đông Sơn culture of the Bronze Age), its importance to a distinct Vietnamese sense of identity is such that it continues to resonate in diasporic stories of displacement.

Vietnamese-Australian artists James Nguyen and Victoria Pham have created a multi-faceted project exploring the Đông Sơn drum as a spiritual object, cultural icon, token of trade and instrument of warfare. In the gallery are two screens; on one, the history and mythology of the instrument is explored, while on the second master percussionists, commissioned by the artists, activate the sonic cultural past of one community and reimagine it for the contemporary now. These works, coupled with videos unfolding the research and processes behind the exhibition (on view in the Reading Room), are an invitation for visitors to participate in digital experiments and music creation.

Encompassing performance, installation and the possibilities of the digital realm, RE:SOUNDING explores one cultural object’s changing meanings over time and across cultures.

Samstag alumni Nguyen is a film-maker and artist working in Melbourne, who has exhibited across Europe, the US and the Asia Pacific. Pham is a sound composer, archaeologist and artist who specialises in archaeoacoustics, working between London, Sydney and Paris.

Catalogue essay by Stephen Zagala.