neuroforest

In this series ‘frozen data’ exploring the inexplicable mystery of supernatural forces and unconscious worlds, the artist paints her experience of encountering fantastical hybrid animals and unceasingly gazing at magnificent details of nature. Mythical undertones and a playful sense of wonder pervade her intricate collages of original painting, photography, and digital dyes. Each frame is a portal into the whimsical world of the artist’s imagination, intermingled with flashes of personal memories and lyrical narratives, free of logic and reason. As one enters, they immerse into mystifying scenes stretched by an uncanny abstract notion of time, of earth, heaven and hell, gods and goddesses, organisms, animals, and plants… Everything becomes ‘frozen data’, time and matters that keep melting into each other — a vortex that mirrors itself, again and again, an endless cycle of dreaming, entering, exiting, and re-entering the dream.

washed mulberry

In this series ‘frozen data’ exploring the inexplicable mystery of supernatural forces and unconscious worlds, the artist paints her experience of encountering fantastical hybrid animals and unceasingly gazing at magnificent details of nature. Mythical undertones and a playful sense of wonder pervade her intricate collages of original painting, photography and digital dyes. Each frame is a portal into the whimsical world of the artist’s imagination, intermingled with flashes of personal memories and lyrical narratives, free of logic and reason. As one enters, they immerse into mystifying scenes stretched by an uncanny abstract notion of time, of earth, heaven and hell, gods and goddesses, organisms, animals, and plants… Everything becomes ‘frozen data’, time and matters that keep melting into each other — a vortex that mirrors itself, again and again, an endless cycle of dreaming, entering, exiting, and re-entering the dream.

Wire V

The wire series originated in 2003, and is based on the structure of the Magic Lantern slide projection work, through a mechanical control to repeatedly adjust the focal length to transform a regular piece of wire mesh into a moving image of a dynamic Chinese landscape (Shanshui); to explore how images change the way we see and imagine the outside world. Every single piece of this series of work provides different angles into this proposition. In Wire V, an episcope (Opaque Projector) is used as the imaging principle. The strong light illuminates the mesh wire and is directed through a large camera lens focusing on the image, which is then projected as an exquisite image. With the rapid development of digital technology, the requirement for image resolution continues to increase, from photography, video equipment to display devices. The format from full HD, 2K, 4K or even 8K in the future, exponentially increases every few years. In addition to the promotion of the commercial market, I am curious about the deeper desires that drive the endless pursuit of reproduction far beyond what the body can sense. Or we just change a way in which to pursue a space that is feasible, hopeful, visitable and livable.

 

Memory Dispute

‘Coral Sea As Rolling Thunder’ (2017) installation for Art Basel Statements traces how rapid economic growth, communication and exchange alters subjecthood in contemporary Vietnam.

At the core of the installation stands the artist’s theme of the body in its layered political aspects. In her major new video work Memory Dispute (2017) Tieu investigates the shifting economies of the use of toxins in past and contemporary Asia. Memory Dispute captures a remote rainforest in central Vietnam, an area heavily attacked by napalm during the Vietnamese American war. The footage recording ghostly images of an ecosystem now irrevocably altered. The landscape becomes a metaphorical study when contrasted with footage, which meticulously document the process of an illicit skin whitening treatment prevalent throughout Southeast Asia. An acid fluid is applied onto the body to separate two skin layers, allowing the entire first surface layer of skin to be peeled off. Skin, the protective surface of the body, functions here as a metaphor and a means to inquire on the circulation and shifting impact of these external forces onto individuals.

Tieu’s moving image work maps disparate and converging lines between the inflammable liquid napalm and that of an acid skin peel, exploring the body, nature and Vietnam’s layered historic colonial legacy as a vessel exposed to harm and self-harm and wider implications to future uncertainties.

Red Etude

The human condition has been of central focus to much of Nguyễn Minh Phước’s conceptual work, which embraces installation, sculpture and video. Compelled to make art that addresses the social gap between rich and poor, between social elite and social downtrodden, between those who are considered intellectuals, military men or humble laborers, much of Phước’s work questions governance and control. Critical of the way in which his country’s progress lacks an awareness of its own past, a kind of endemic attitude of complacency, ‘Red Etude’ (2009) draws on several cultural narratives of Vietnam. A woman, dressed in military uniform and waving a red flag, dances the forms of ‘tai chi’, a Chinese form of meditation that believes body movement moves inner spiritual energies. In the background, black and white footage of Hanoi weaves yet another story of this military clad, traditional dance. People are shown protesting, giving alms, staring blankly in desolation, moving busily with ambiguous purpose – all of these juxtapositions are deliberate visual ploys by Phước who asks us to think harder about the contemporary identity of Vietnam. (Zoe Butt)

Perhaps – Ant I

The work is the first one of a series of 3 videos ‘Perhaps – Ant’, inspired by a Vietnamese traditional children song:

“The ant who climbs the banyan tree branch /

Up the wrong branch back and forth it climbs /

The ant who climbs the peach tree branch /

Up the wrong branch forth and back it climbs.”

 

Soundtracks

“We set foot in Vị Xuyên martyrs’ cemetery, which had 1,768 (until July 2013) graves of the deceased from 1979 to the beginning of 1990, especially in 1984 and 1988. I recorded all the information about these 1,768 people, which were etched on their tombstones. From the information I collected, I used Google Maps to draw connecting paths from their hometowns to Vị Xuyên (where they sacrificed their lives and their remaining corpses were concentrated). I separated these paths from the maps, for all that’s left are the cold and meaningless lines. in other words, we can only see 1,768 winding strokes. Is there anything left but 1,768 routes which all lead to death at the same place?” (Phùng Tiến Sơn)

The decade long Sino-Vietnamese War, otherwise known as the Third Indochina War, from 1979-1991, finally cemented the land border between Vietnam and China. Intrigued by this lesser-known conflict, Sơn traveled repeatedly over a six month period to the Vị Xuyên cemetery, situated just over 250 km north of Hanoi in the Hà Giang province, to visit soldiers’ graves who had died fighting there. He then used the information of each soldiers’ birthplace, recorded from their headstone, to generate in Google Maps the 1,768 speculative journeys leading to the cemetery that later became the Soundtracks artworks. The familiar blue route guides were then abstracted and aestheticized; removed from their geographical context and colored red, the lines appear stark and erratic against their white background. The single dots that recur throughout the work indicate tombstones of anonymous soldiers, buried without identification. These marks fill the squares that are found in each work: in the hanging panels that have been arranged to imitate an aerial view of the cemetery land, and in the touchscreen display that forms the sound work of the installation.

Soundtracks‘ – the sound installation, combines these imagined trajectories with the military dirge ‘Hồn Tử Sĩ’ (To the Souls of the Martyrs) to create an interactive work that builds on the artist’s history as a musical composer, as well as his ongoing interest in technology. The song was used by the antagonistic governments of both North and South Vietnam and continues to be used today in official military and state funerals. Sơn used customized software to reconfigure the melody to each journey, distorting the sound by altering its playback speed, and creating 1,768 versions of the same song. The amount of distortion reflects how much the trajectory diverges from the shortest path – a straight line between the start and endpoints. Curves to the right slow down the sound, while curves to the left speed it up. Tempo, tone, and balances are subsequently engineered to follow the various contours of each path chosen by the viewer via the work’s interactive display. Path and song then play out across the screen: the original score’s solemn sound modified with a lurching, technological influence. Through this digital manipulation of sound, the artist initiates a space for quiet reflection from his audience, leaving them room to contemplate the overarching sense of futility with which the work engages.

Elephant – Bis, bis!

The two videos “Elephant” and “Bis! Bis!” are two channels of an installation video.

‘Elephant’

There is a fable about 4 blind men and an elephant. The blind men were given a chance to see the elephant for the first time. Each man came to touch the elephant’s leg, ear, tail and trunk respectively. After that, when asked, what is the elephant, four men can’t stop arguing because each of them just knew the elephant as its part they have touched. Vietnam is rapidly developing. With advantages brought by the development of the economy, its people are struggling to be adapted to the new environment, to learn to accept or reject such values, which are newborn by the consumerism or very old from the socialism. In the meantime, its society is dealing with many conflicts, causing by its trying to keep the old dogmas, which in fact, leading to unexplainable, unsolvable dilemmas. According to Cam, the elephant is big and friendly but at the same time, people are afraid of them. Its movement is rhythmic, like a dance, but seems to be mysterious. This video borrows the above fable and the mysteriousness of the elephant’s movement to hint at the confused developing process and the mysteriousness of society operation in Vietnam today. It could be something, or certain problem, largely loomed, but were ignored and considered as mystic.

‘Bis! Bis!’

When a performance is finished, the audience sometimes expresses their overwhelming feeling and they make sound like “Bis! Bis!” In return, the actors come out on the stage, bow at the audiences again. Again, again and again… sometimes, the situation seems to be nonstop, feel like they all desperately cling to something unclear, as if trapped in a time trap. The images are illogical repetitive, cropped round and flashed like an eclipse. It could be a dramatic wheel, which is repetitious and inescapable of all the future expectations. (Hoang Duong Cam)

AK-47 vs M-16

AK-47 vs. M16 creates a spectacular visual effect, like a scene of the future, when one can clearly see the two bullets that collide and break through in a gel block. In fact, all elements of that scene are objects and symbols of the past and the present. They are special gel sampling our flesh used to test the damage in ballistics, two bullets fired from two legendary rifles AK 47, invented by the Soviet army, and M16, by US Army. The work is a profound epitome of ‘confrontation’: between two bullets, between two design mindsets of rifle, between the two armies escalating the Cold War weaponry, between the two front lines using these two guns during the Vietnam War. The stunning physical presence of AK 47 vs. M16 seemingly leads the viewers into a mythic world of history. Yet after all, this lightning moment of two single fire lines slowed down and frozen forever realizes the horrifying scale of wartime and political violence throughout 20th century history.

WTC in Four Moments

WTC in Four Moments is like four seasons, starting from summer, fall and winter and then returning to spring. They correspond to four stages: before, during, and after the clash of the aircraft into the World Trade Center building, and finally in spring a new building image emerged from the ashes. By stretching the photos to 200 meters, Dinh Q. Le blurred out specific images of history. After a shock, images become symbolic; however it is our perception of the event that becomes the most obscure haunting. This September 11th event unfolds in the memory not with the manifest image of an aircraft attacking the WTC, but as an abstract notion. Simply naming the date, one may summon up painful loss and fear of terror. The four-channel video runs along the four photograph rolls with whirring noise that makes viewers seemingly mesmerized by data streams in the digitalized information world. WTC in Four Moments is a poem commemorating a major event in human history, which is soaked in a long, deep, dull voice yet ended with a high note of spring.