LE THUY
THE SILENCE IS DEAFENING
Opening: Fri 13 Nov 2020, 06:30 pm – 08:30 pm
Exhibition: 13 Nov 2020 – 08 Jan 2021
Vin Gallery
No 11 Street 55, Thảo Điền Ward, District 2, Hồ Chí Minh city
I practice art by viewing my works as witnesses reflecting contemporary events through a personal lens full of intricacy and instability. I am constantly haunted by death and decay. How will people struggling through moments of life and death live? The struggle and seizing every opportunity to survive reflect the behaviors and origins of those individuals. From there, we can see the tragedies behind their lives.
The exhibition "The Silence is Deafening" is inspired by Rachel Carson's work "Silent Spring," about environmental devastation. I created the work during a time when darkness enveloped humanity: pandemics, wars, waves of people fleeing in search of safety and salvation, and deaths that cannot be resisted. People isolated, separated from loved ones, from society, from nature.
This work was created based on the events of Vietnamese people freezing on their way to England. Because they wanted to change their lives, they had to exchange their lives. The work is painted with lacquer on 39 broken đàn bầu. Using lacquer painting techniques, I depict natural landscapes, temples, fields... in a silent landscape. I wish to create a space of silence, where tragedies are happening. Self-delusion, selfishness, indifference, and fear will lead us all to a world without any sound—a dead world. The sound of the đàn bầu, once used to express emotions, now no longer holds that meaning, only serving as evidence of abandonment and neglect.
Sometimes the silence is deafening.
Sometimes silence is the only voice we have.
LIFE ORDINARY
18 February - 12 March 2020
Presented by Craig Thomas Gallery
27i Tran Nhat Duat Street, Tan Dinh Ward, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
This series is about my journey to find the pristine beauty of nature—a place where humanity is a part of, rather than apart from, seeking dominion over it.
I seek the serene beauty and romanticism of nature.
I'm not the first to evoke and explore the beauty of nature, certainly not the last, nor particularly unique in my depiction.
I am simply a person living in a time that people call "modern." Comfort and convenience have separated us completely from nature. I feel suffocated. I long to see a drop of morning dew on a leaf, the splendid redness of the setting sun, watch the passage of time on the fading petals, and enjoy the brightness of stars against the dark sky.
All creatures are created equal. But are we really equal to other creatures on this rock?
We, humans, tear down mountains, poison rivers, destroy habitats, wiping out entire species. We set ourselves above and apart from nature to exploit it, and in our selfishness and greed, we modern people are ever lonely.
The works in this series, titled "Life Ordinary," are my grief for the loss of the natural world, our collective loss. There is much evidence in literature, poetry, and architecture that celebrate the majesty of nature and our place within it.
Now, we have nothing but pollution, ugly high rises, barren fields, and diseased herds. Nature was beautiful, and we made it pitiful. It would be tragic if we only knew the beauty of nature through recorded images of the past.
I especially like the passage in Fukuoka's "The One-Straw Revolution":
"Snake bites frog ... hawk hunts snake. Wolf attacks hawk. One person kills the wolf, and later succumbs to tuberculosis. Bacteria grow in the human corpse and the grass thrives on nutrients from bacterial activity. Insects attack plants and frogs feed on insects.”
Humans are just a part of the natural cycle of life. Going against nature will only lead to self-destruction.
I choose images from nature and arrange them according to the law of survival. All living beings are wrestling with life and death. As the bird lies decaying in the field, covered in flies, corn stalks withering desolately with only the echo of the waterfowl in the emptiness. Even the comfortable herd struggles with nature for survival.
I am recording a heroic epic about the death of all life. I hope that after death, life returns as ordinary.
UNINHABITED
(Young Talent Programme Winners’ Solo Exhibitions)
1 - 24 Septemper 2017
ION Art Gallery, Singapore.
I always feel cynical about life. The lovely things I'm seeing seem like a charade. The beauty that I adore for so long turned out to be a veneer. I am curious about, and search for the essence of things, I peer under the veneer. Beauty fades in decay. I chase after what I see as just a veneer. Disappointed. I find myself on a path to nowhere. I aspire to create a perfect world. A world of no people, of no frustrations, no pretensions, no constraints. That perfect world is probably the world of death. But death amplifies beauty.
I choose animal images that are placed imaginary spaces, using silk as the medium to express my feelings. In quiet observation, haunted and tormented.
WHERE IS THE PLACE OF PEACE
1 - 24 Septemper 2017
Craig Thomas Gallery
27i Tran Nhat Duat Street, Tan Dinh Ward, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
THE ORDER
Opening: Sat 25 Jul 2015, 6 pm
Exhibition: 25 Jul – 25 Aug 2015
Chula, Hanoi, Vietnam.
I have a special love for traditional silk material. That is why I have used silk as the main medium in my creative process.
Obsessed about a sense of place and space, I have asked myself a few questions: “where is a place of peace? Where do people live true to their nature?” To answer these questions, I have placed myself in different spaces. The interactions between spaces and people led me to appreciate the true value of life. These interactions can be both specific or figurative in nature.
I choose human figures, animals and nature and place them in imaginary settings with a narrative that is at times an opera, at times real life. I want to create an ambiguous, unreal space where there are hidden risks, struggles, loneliness and yearning for place where life is more beautiful.
I use silk because silk is a traditional material representing Eastern traditions. The softness of silk gives us a sense of mystery which is why I use silk to weave my personal stories.