LIPING VONG and Oanh Vu experiment with shadow puppetry during Monkeybear's week-long intensive (2018). Photo by Chamindika Wanduragala.
I think God has a plan for me, and it involves puppets.
— Luanne Platter, King of the Hill
Originally from central Iowa, LIPING VONG (she/they) is a multi- inter- anti-disciplinary artist living and working in Minneapolis, MN. Being a child of refugees from Laos and growing up in a small town-turned-suburb shapes the stories she’s interested in telling, sparks her curiosity and longing for lands barely recognizable, and influences how the characters in her stories inhabit their worlds.
She has a long history in dance, and now studies how to move strict, hierarchical, and technical forms to nonhierarchical, choreographic play. She strives to bring these practices to collaborative storytelling.
LIPING got her puppetry start through Monkeybear’s Harmolodic Workshop (2018 Cohort)—a week-long intensive into a 6-month mentorship program—to learn and explore puppetry as a storytelling medium. Since then, she has performed in a number of pieces and at venues such as Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia), Pillsbury House Theater, Open Eye Figure Theatre, The Bakken Museum, Twin Cities Public Television (TPT), and for a filmed puppet opera through the MN Opera.