Magical bow (Lacquered Time) - VCAD - Vietnam Contemporary Art Database

Magical bow (Lacquered Time)

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Sắp đặt của triển lãm "Gieo Nhịp Cử Chỉ", Nguyen Art Foundation, 2023.

Installation view of exhibition "Rhyming Gestures", Nguyen Art Foundation, 2023.

Info

ARTIST

Phan Thảo Nguyên

YEAR

2019

CATEGORY

Installation Art, Sculpture

TECHNIQUES

SIZE

Variable

MEDIUM

Watercolor, Wood

Watercolor on silk, mother of pearl inlay and lacquer on wood. Lacquer produced in collaboration with artist Đinh Văn Sơn. Installation of artwork with three bows (Three bows courtesy the artist). Dimensions variable.

Statement

It is the codification of a historical truth memorialized with symbol (eg. the crossbow of betrayal), systematized by language (eg. traditional mythical tale), that ultimately enthralls and concerns Phan Thảo Nguyên in its capacity to contain, visualize and transmit knowledge (eg. Ethical or moral lessons). In Magical Bow (Your Daughter is a Traitor), Phan’s bows float disarmed, without their trigger arrows, in stasis as if they have been summarily paused. They are like the powerless army of King An Duong Vuong, but for Phan the static state of this army is not the consequence of an absent golden turtle claw, but the misplacement of learned history – like a bow whose function is rendered decorative without its arrow, so is the past rendered merely descriptive without its record (the arrow carries us to the target; the written record carries us to the reasons why something occurred).

Original statement by the artist.

Source: Nguyen Art Foundation

Collection of Nguyen Art Foundation

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

https://nguyenartfoundation.com/artwork/your-daughter-is-a-traitor/

2023

Rhyming Gestures

Group exhibition, Nguyen Art Foundation, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam