Hoàng Dương Cam, ‘Pre-helicopter Era, Michael Rabin in the middle of Dong Thap Muoi or Bach Violin Sonata 1005 Adagio’, 2021, oil on canvas, 195 x 260cm. Image courtesy of the artist and Galerie Quynh.
The title ‘Pre-helicopter Era, Michael Rabin in the middle of Dong Thap Muoi or Bach Violin Sonata 1005 Adagio’ (2021) serves as a prelude for that journey, a convergence of non-exhaustive notes in an intricate tune. Employing a palette of mostly pastel tones, Cầm has skillfully combined and juxtaposed them to create spatial contrast – a task that requires a fine sensitivity toward colors as pastel hues are apt to distill into one another, resulting in a pallid ‘flat patch’. His brushstrokes also vary, a spontaneous mixture of short, continuous stubs that signify circular movements, and long, broad strokes that seem to float in a serene blank space. More importantly, the colour and form in the paintings of ‘Khúc LACHRIMAE’ all respond to a musical rhythm — the way the ochre background sinks to suggest depth, or the unevenly serrated line rises to the canvas surface all convey Cầm’s contemplation of a classical music piece. Here, he imagines the scene where violinist Michael Rabin is playing at Đồng Tháp Mười (a region in the Mekong Delta), next to him is the sound of helicopter rotor gathering speed before alighting. The spinning rhythm of the helicopter, a symbol long-attached to the Vietnam War and an object whose models Michael Rabin collected as a pastime, is blended into the bow-on-string movements, all “transmitted” through colour and form to manifest in an abstract space, somewhere between the anterior and posterior, inviting viewers to appreciate it visually and audially.
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