View of “Arlette Quỳnh-Anh Trần: iii.x_Unrealized Utopia,” 2024. Steel form: Analysis of an Image, 2024. Hanging: TUU–Das Kino, 2023. Utopia, as concrete as it is elusive, is the spectral pillar upholding so many Western schools of thought, from Christian belief in a messianic deliverance to the Marxist ideal of a classless society. Yet Arlette Arlette […]
I contributed a dialogical essay, titled Make a Big Quilt Out of It”: How Art and History Interweave in Dinh Q. Lê’s Crossing the Farther Shore, for American Historical Review, Vol 128, Issue 4 in December 2023. In the essay, I detailed the conversation between me and late artist Dinh Q. Le, about his artistic
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)
Vy Trịnh, VISION, 2024, Honda Vision moped chassis, flat steel bar, steel rod, organza ribbon, satin ribbon, plastic beads, nickel-plated steel ball chain, rhinestone chain, wheel, rebar, stators, copper wire, brass, flux and rhinestone mesh. Photo: Galerie Quynh. “Positioning this vehicle not only as a quotidian household item but also as a symbol of industrialization,
I like to think of my practice as working in a garden where many histories occur simultaneously. My family has deep agricultural roots and I grew up surrounded by nature in the Central Highlands. As a result, I see my artworks as seeds that I sow in the garden. Depending on the conditions, they will continue to germinate, sprout, and transform.
Dinh’s storytelling was political but not politicized: He interspersed harsh realities with a generous dose of poetics and sensitivity toward marginalized communities—people whose lives were quickly swept under the rug after the war ended.
I have gone back and forth between different forms of drawing, for example, charcoal and graphites, and recently oil pastel and embroidery on canvas.
In Black Landscapes, 2018–20, a single-channel video guides us through a series of dusky, neon-lit sites where floating residences used to be anchored along the Mekong. These haunting landscapes are accompanied by the soundtrack of an old shaman’s scratchy prayer for fish to return to the lake, rendering all the more acute the absence of the houses’ inhabitants—now persistent apparitions who invite us to contemplate the porous validity of national borders.
Applying an eclectic combination of materials—ranging from acrylic and charcoal to lacquer and gold leaf—Hà has created a façade of interweaving textures, where epiphanies inspired by poetry commingle with explosive brushstrokes and a vibrant palette.