Meet our alumni: Le Phuong Anh, Class of 2022

To start with, please could you tell us a little bit about yourself. 

My name is Phuong Anh. I graduated from BIS Hanoi in 2022 after having been a part of the community for ten years. I grew up in an extended family of architects, which encouraged me to immerse in artistic creation and appreciation early on. Throughout my years at BIS, this has been a passion of mine to cultivate, as well as my participation in sports, student leadership, and other creative cultural activities. 

Knowing that you joined the school from the very beginning (in 2012 – when the school was first established), when you look back at the past 10 years you have spent here, what are your favourite memories of BIS Hanoi?  

I will always cherish the memories I have made on school trips. Being in such a tight-knit community of students, teachers, and parents, these trips made our bond even stronger. Whether it be FOBISIA, Global Games, the Duke of Edinburgh Award, or our year group trips, there are simply experiences that cannot be replicated. The vigorous training, learning, sportsmanship, and the new friends I met during the international sports competitions are things I hold very dear to me. My parents loved joining our trips and cheering for the Lionhearts even more than I did.

How has BIS Hanoi shaped the way you study in your 10-year learning journey?  

In the same way that I have been lucky enough to be a part of BIS Hanoi’s growth over the ten years, BIS has played a huge role in my growth – as an independent student, sportswoman, lover of the creative arts, a member of my community, etc. I’ve had plenty of opportunities to expand the scope of my studies and become the holistic learner I am today.

We heard you received a perfect mark on your IB Visual Arts Exhibition on the theme of “Perfectionism”, we would love to hear more about that.  What inspired you to choose “Perfectionism” as a theme?

Perfectionism has been prevalent for the majority of my life. As a personal subject, mostly withheld from others, I felt that I could communicate this theme in artistic ways which simple words could not. While a desire for perfection is not necessarily harmful, my IB Visual Arts Exhibition depicts my experience with a more unhealthy and maladaptive form of self-oriented perfectionism.  

Throughout my life, I have always derived a great sense of pleasure from completing tasks with exceptional quality– maybe to the point of developing a dependence on this validation. Despite this enhancing my self-esteem, the overly ambitious standards I set for myself after each task leads to a perfectionistic motivation. And since perfection is elusive, there is undoubtedly a constant fear and uncertainty of not living up to my expectations which follow.  

As such, we have pervasive questions. Am I smart enough? Pretty enough? Talented enough? Enough? Nit-picking. Over-criticizing. Self-doubt. These are heightened in our hyper-individualistic culture, where pressure is on the individual to succeed and flawlessness is prioritized. Focusing on these beliefs, my IB Visual Arts Exhibition explores the excessively high standards implemented on different people to achieve perfection.  

How did you go about choosing which artwork to display and why? 

Addressing my perfectionism within this exhibition was a goal of mine, so for the artworks, I explored and experimented with entirely new media, compositions, and ideas. I chose artworks that together played a cohesive role in emulating how perfectionists perceive themselves and communicating these emotions to the viewer. They each portray different aspects of perfectionism: whether through appearances, in academic settings, at work, or in traditional Vietnamese society. One of my first artworks for this exhibition, ‘Asian Eyes’, was during an anti-Asian hate wave. The media used here (a circular, protruding canvas for a fish-eye lens) subjects the viewers to a perfectionistic perspective as if being overly critical of the eyes. Similarly, ‘My worth’ depicts eyes made of small ink typography and exam papers. With the compulsive nature of perfectionists in mind, pieces like ‘My worth’ and ‘Fraud’ have an abundance of minute details to invite the viewer to peruse these works. This effort in doing so mimics perfectionists' obsession with achieving their version of perfection. 
Other pieces such as ‘Anti-aging’ and ‘Impending…’ present the hands as symbols of the subject’s physical effort to alter, amend, and fix their flaws. I followed my heart when creating these pieces to truly replicate perfectionistic emotions. ‘Impending’ is curated to create recurrent kaleidoscope animations and incessant ticking audios as viewers explore the exhibition space. 
Overall, the way the exhibition space is curated replicates the distress and struggles that perfectionism causes, both visually through the artwork (its scale, and colour palette) and physically in the exhibition space. The body of work engages the viewers by introducing specific examples, then becomes more interactive with sculpture and digital-projected work to portray shared perfectionistic emotions. 

How do you think the IBDP programme challenged your work?  

The IBDP was rigorous; it introduced new, specialized concepts or components that required students to be proactive and independent in their studies to succeed. What I enjoyed about this was that, as an IB graduate, I became more holistic and well-prepared to pursue excellence in my university studies.  

How did you feel when you received your IBDP score?  

I was immensely glad to see the result of a rigorous 2-year journey! It is a proud achievement and a good reflection of the work I put in.

Now that you have graduated from BIS Hanoi, which university are you attending next year and why do you choose that university/major?  

I will be attending the University of Toronto (St. George campus), majoring in Visual Studies and perhaps a tech-related program. I would like to say that my career interests are a mix of my parents; I would love to be constantly immersed in art and design while also developing a mind for business and marketing. 

In the wider context, we are much more focused on outbreaks in the sciences and technology without fully appreciating how they complement our cultural needs and aesthetics– and I think that technology within the design (or vice versa) is the perfect fusion. With rapid changes in the world, I want to be a part of the technological innovations within the art that follows. Knowing that this is a field I want to pursue, I have decided on this study path. 

What advice do you have for your BIS fellow students as they continue their journey through BIS Hanoi, and get ready for the IB? 

Be proactive. The IBDP is challenging in many ways but once you step out and utilize the support from around you (i.e. your peers, your teachers, and resources online) I am sure that the programme will be immensely less stressful. I’ve found that actively communicating with your teachers about your progress and your goals will help you so much. Same with alumni as well– we experienced a lot of our ‘firsts’ with the IBDP that I wish people told me beforehand and would gladly give advice if you reach out. It gets very busy once you start the IBDP, so building a habit of managing your time and workload before you start is a good idea. 

Thank you Phuong Anh!