a metal plate filled with brass bullet shells and doll clothing

Minnesota-based artist Dej Txiaj Ntsim, Kuab Maiv Yaj, Koua Mai Yang’s installation los os, los os, come, come is the ninth iteration of her series tsev, home. Yaj’s practice engages in autoethnography, photography, installation, performance, and textiles to make meaning and hold space for HMong identity and to possibly address invisibility and HMong female experiences.

Belonging to a generation removed from the American War in Vietnam and in particular the Secret War in Laos, the tsev, home installation series seeks to recollect and make meaning of HMong’s history of displacement, American imperialism, and while imagining how to heal from the legacy of statelessness and wars. 

los os, los os, come, come, intentionally engages in Hmong ancestral spirituality, particularly in nqee (close pronunciation: king), a practice of chanting and speaking from the heart to call a loved one’s lost souls and spirits to return home.