Thao Bui - Australia
Thao Bui
Designer biography:
Thao Bui is an emerging artist based in Narrm (Melbourne) Australia. Informed by her interdisciplinary background in psychotherapy and sexology, combined with over a decade of experience in Intensive care nursing, Bui’s practice explores complex and sensitive themes through wearable forms. Her work investigates cultural memory by weaving fragmented histories into a unified narrative. In 2024, Bui completed an Advanced Diploma in Jewellery and Object Design at Melbourne Polytechnic (2024), receiving the Industry Award from e.g.etal for her graduate collection. She is currently a participant of Craft Victoria’s Fresh! Fellowship 2025 - a year long creative professional development program designed to further foster the creative potential of recent graduates.
Collection concept:
Tender Waters is inspired by Vietnamese music composed during the 1960s–80s. These songs convey a duality between presence and escapism, particularly in the absence of immediate resolution, with ‘Rain’ and ‘Ocean’ often appearing as recurring central motifs. Drawing from these themes, Thao intuitively embroiders and hand-sculpts forms into wearable pieces using thread, precious metals and shibuichi. Through these materials, she creates tactile compositions that interlace memory and emotion - an act of reframing past experiences and quietly integrating what is hidden or fragmented, allowing new perspectives to emerge. Alone, a single thread is delicate, but when intertwined, it weaves into a tapestry of shapes, objects, landscapes, and forms.
