Clerget presents a room full of song and celebration, dispelling stereotypical images of Asian women and giving them agency. Upon entering her mise-en-scène through bamboo lotus curtains, we are presented with her Chinoiseries series against the backdrop of a video which plays a Vietnamese love ballad, “Hờn Anh Giận Em” - a classic of the nhạc trữ tình (sentimental music) genre.

Clerget’s intimate lacquer-like paintings are built up layer by layer using gel nail polish, and this series celebrates diaspora spaces to honour her community. Glimpses of an empty theatre with red curtains, a nail salon, a restaurant with a fish tank in the background and a karaoke bar, are all captured in technically skilled, glossy detail. The nail salon, a theme in her work which recognises the impact of nail training on the international Vietnamese community, is then brought to life in her video Amazing Nails (2026).

Supported by a pink, frilly stage, Sophia the nail technician daydreams about donning the clothes of famed Vietnamese warriors, the Trưng Sisters. These heroines, who fought off the Han dynasty in 40 CE, forgo the classic tale of ‘man at war’ and ‘wife at home’, instead singing the ballad as two women soldiers claiming their own power. Much like Anum’s portraits where women are dancing with abandon, Clerget’s Sophia yearns to be free from the confines of her salon and to sing on a bright light stage.