A group exhibition
The fire in my belly
Artists: Vuong Thao - Dao Tan - Koa Pham | Curator: Nguyen Hai Nam | Duration: 11/08/2024 - 22/09/2024
Preface
“Our love is the silent, lovely scent of a hawthorn.
Our love is the sound of a reed flute’s song.
A lover’s only weariness is in his heart.
We are like small night candles, burning together without knowing it.”
A Great Wagon - Rumi
The thirteenth century Persian poet, Rumi, used the imagery of fire to talk about love, passion, and its transformative power on the human spirit. Rumi’s philosophical poetry goes beyond love in the ordinary sense, also implying the enchantment of all things. This passion is used as the starting point of the exhibition “The fire in my belly” at Mo Art Space. Originating from contemplative emotions simmering within, artists Vuong Thao, Dao Tan, and Koa Pham convey their reflections on the social landscape through natural materials, undergoing multiple transformations to rediscover their primordial states: stone, charcoal, wood, water. Their works stand out due to the artists’ unique approaches while sharing an intriguing commonality: the interaction between artistic craft and the transformative processes of nature.
Vuong Thao’s artistic language always carries a sense of calmness and deep contemplation, evident in previous works using resin, where he preserves history and freezes time within a transparent lens. With the series Smoldering, using materials like charcoal, color, and gold foils, Vuong Thao simplifies all imagery to focus deeply on the inner self. The artist's reflections on the human psyche are more subtle than in previous works but brimming with symbolic emotion. The cracks and fractures on the surface of the paintings, created by burning the entire frame in a smoldering fire over a long time, then re-illustrate desires waiting for the moment to burst forth through red or yellow strokes. They persist, lingering, full of fervor but not intense, and perhaps cling to the one who holds them within, along with the viewer of his paintings. Vuong Thao poses questions about aspects of human character in life and their value through his works: What do we need to pursue our dreams?
Continuing the stillness of “The fire in my belly” exhibition, Dao Tan’s sculptures 20years30years50years/minute transport viewers to a different state of space and time. The marks of intentional erosion are not the result of natural creation. Dao Tan’s sculptures carry the mystery of relics or artifacts from another world, while simultaneously creating surprise and ambiguity about the origin of the work itself. Carving the marks of time, Đào Tân examines their value in the context of the present space, along with the emotions surrounding this concept: surprise, nostalgia, agitation, appreciation... For him, "thinking about the past is not to immerse ourselves in it, but to help us appreciate the present more today”. Collected from leftover industrial stones, Dao Tan recreates a new value of wealth and concept for this series of works. 20years30years50years/minute suddenly changed fundamentally, creating new relationships between the creator, viewer, or collector. When does an object, a work of art, become valuable? How do we determine its market or emotional value? Furthermore: Who decides the value of a work of art?
Koa Pham approaches artistic creation with a gentle romanticism, challenging the constraints of established conventions. Material melts through the covering layer, enveloping the surface of the paper. Koa Pham contemplates how we view, appreciate paintings, and the challenges to visual perception and awareness of art. Incorporating elements of performance into paintings, the chemical reaction between bath soap and water creates shimmering, soft images blending into one another, evoking visions of a paradise. As the form dissolves, the remaining traces on the surface become evidence of imagination. A varnish layer is applied to preserve these stains, symbolizing the effort to hold onto fleeting moments of paradise. The sensory experience, with sizzling sounds, bubbles, and fragrance, contrasts with the challenge of understanding the original form before it melts, creating an intriguing exploration of the complexities surrounding the concept of paradise that Koa Pham envisions. The Bubble Column offers viewers a momentary escape from reality and a fleeting dreamlike state. Inspired by Albert Lamorisse's film 'The Red Balloon' (1956), Koa Pham explores the unexpected effect of imagery in the subconscious and symbolic images on human perception. At the same time, The Bubble Column plays with the concept of L’art pour l’art (Art for art’s sake): the bubble symbolizes innocence and fragility, flying away from all the rules of human society. Yet this very fragility presents the limits of the concept: at what point does art become for humanity?
