Thanh Le Dang

Dispersed and tucked into corners, windows and unexpected locations around Deptford is a series of hand-painted paper plates by Thanh Le Dang. Reflecting familiar local scenery, the work draws on memories of growing up in a Chinese-Vietnamese immigrant household, blending childhood imagination with the brutalist architecture of council estates.

The plates mimic porcelain once reserved for guests, becoming a public art installation across shopfronts and street corners. China Plates carries diasporic and colonial echoes—traces of Thanh’s family history, from a small Chinese border village to post-war Vietnam and finally Deptford. Her grandfather’s quiet role in the opium trade lingers as a distant thread in the wider web that once fed tea routes to south-east London.

“The first plate features Dolphin Tower… I remember staring out at the blocks with a warped sense of spatial awareness, feeling taller than God… These window views have remained constant in my life. They’re small windows into what it meant to grow up here—stories soaked into the walls and skies of Deptford.” Thanh Le Dang

Preview

Fri 11th July 6pm – 9pm

Viewable 24/7

Multiple locations around Deptford High Street. Venues and times TBA soon.

Thanh Le Dang is a commissioned Deptford X 2025 Artist

Thanh Le Dang is an artist turned writer and theatre-maker who also works in children’s education. She creates community-rich, immersive experiences.

Having lived in Beijing, India and Spain, her work always returns to her roots—born and bred in Deptford. Her ancestors came from a Chinese border village; her parents fled post-war Vietnam before settling in south-east London.

China Plates is layered with diasporic and colonial echoes—from her grandfather’s quiet role in the opium trade, a distant thread in the wider web that once fed tea routes to these shores. Tucked into shop windows and corners, hand-painted paper plates imitate the porcelain kept for guests, offering brutalist views: “…small windows into what it meant to grow up here—stories soaked into the walls and skies of Deptford.”

Image: Thanh Le Dang, PLATE 1, 2025