Cõng đá (Carrying Stones) investigates the embodied weight of history and the fluidity of national identity through the Vietnamese linguistic duality of "Nước"—a term signifying both "water" and "country." In this performance series, the artist carries a substantial block of ice upon her back, a material choice that serves as a visceral metaphor for the fragility and coldness of colonial and post-colonial legacies. As the ice melts, the physical burden transforms from a solid mass into a fluid state, mirroring the evanescence of memory and the persistent leak of historical trauma into the present.
The central posture of the work is the bow—a gesture deeply rooted in East Asian cultural registers of piety, mourning, and supplication. By maintaining this ritualistic stance under the weight of "Nước" (water/nation), the performance interrogates the intergenerational labor of care and the psychological "carrying" of a homeland. Through this quiet endurance, the artist reflects on the displacement of past generations, proposing that the individual body acts as a living vessel where national spirit and personal moral essence are continuously renegotiated.