somethingmaker

“What Balloon Does Not Float on Water” (Như Bóng Nào Mà Chẳng Nổi Trên Nước) is a multi-layered, experimental poem written for No One Magazine – an independent publication focused on contemporary art, culture, and social phenomena in Vietnam. The piece explores fragmentation and states of transformation within urban nightlife spaces, evoking surreal sensations once entwined with the use of nitrous oxide – commonly known as “laughing gas” – which was deeply embedded in queer and nightlife culture before its prohibition.. Centered around the Vietnamese word “bóng”- which carries multiple meanings such as shadow, balloon, gloss, and queer – the poem delves into the suspended, uncanny, and fragile experiences of a queer self in the city. Blending poetic text with photograph, the work opens up a shimmering, hallucinatory space where laughter, light, and identity dissolve into one another.