Thu Van Tran’s Rainbow herbicides 2018, installed at GOMA for ‘Air’, November 2022 / Purchased 2022 with funds from Tim Fairfax AC through the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation / © Thu Van Tran / Photograph: C Callistemon, QAGOMA

The six brightly coloured aerosol sprays refer to the ‘rainbow herbicides’ used by the American military during the Vietnam War (1955–75): the notorious Agent Orange, as well as Agents Blue, Purple, Green, Pink and White. Disseminated from low-flying aircraft, these chemicals were used both to defoliate large areas of forest that might conceal local fighters and to destroy crops. In addition to the agents’ damaging environmental effects, their dioxins caused chronic illness and birth defects in the children of those exposed.