Trần Thảo Miên (b.1991) is a Hanoi-based artist. Her works explore the role of individual living beings on Earth based on the Vietnamese belief "Van vat huu linh" (all beings are with souls). ​Mien is a natural storyteller from her travel journey across Asia to her artworks in which she sees the world where perspectives of the hierarchy are out of human hands. 

Holobiont is the initiation, in which Mien questions whether human thought, touch, and emotions are controlled by microbial systems inside and outside our bodies. The (tree) Altar series then invite trees back to their long-forgotten-sacred-position, where trees once were offered and prayed to in ritual activities of humans. 

Graduating from the University of the Art London, majoring in Fashion technology: Surface textiles, Mien has developed her own embroidery techniques using monofilament yarn on various types of fashion waste, while moving toward collaboration with nature beings. “I try to approach nature with sincerity and respect as tenderly as I can. I let them lead the path and flow like water, slowly and gently learning from them.”

​Mien is also a co-founder of Collective Son Son, with the goal of creating a sustainable living space imbued with Vietnamese personality in modern times.

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Contact: work.mientrant@gmail.com