Multi-media installation: Light projection using handcrafted “Lacquerscopes” (projectors, iron, stainless steel, kevlar, recycled lenses), lacquer laminated glass. Dimensions varied.

Palimpsest builds upon my previous exhibition Parchmentier where I presented the “lacquer skin” (or son mai painting on transparent film), a concept and technique that I developed of the dematerialized lacquer image. This time, I employ the lacquer skin as slides to be used with Laquerscopes that I designed to project the images onto silk screens stretched onto wooden frames.

The resulting projections are the shadows of these small lacquer paintings that reveal details of sơn ta  that are previously unseen. They are reminiscent of images seen through a telescope or a microscope that present a macro or micro view of a universe invisible to the naked eye if not for the aid of a lens. This project touches on a number of elements—including the manipulation of visible light, a constant shift in scale and perspective, and deference to what is seen through an apparatus or a machine – to reflect on how we interact with reality in the present.

Phi Phi Oanh, Hanoi, April 2013.

Specula  and  Palimpsest  both  represent  a  shift  in  scale  and  dimension  from  established  lacquer  painting  of  the  past, mirroring our current fascination with seeing on a micro or macro scale. Palimpsest is a departure from Specula, an attempt at the total dematerialization of the medium painted on opaque panels into light. I developed the technique of painting on glass, through which  light  was  projected  through  a  laminated  lacquer  skin.  Both  space  and  image  are  created  through  the  effects  of  light  and shadow. What we see is no longer lacquer painting in the traditional sense, but an examination of its minute qualities, as though observing it through a microscope for the first time.

The resulting projections are the shadows of these small lacquer paintings that reveal details previously unseen of sơn ta. They are reminiscent of images seen through a telescope or a microscope that present a universe invisible to the naked eye if not for the aid of a lens. This project touches on a number of elements or themes—including the manipulation of visible light, a constant shift in scale and perspective, and deference to what is seen through an apparatus or a machine – to reflect on how we see in this digital era.

“Lacquerscope” is the name I have given to the lacquer projection machines I created from lenses and parts from old medium and small format slide projectors.  Each have been redesigned and retrofitted with new LED light sources and lacquered. The  name  harkens  back  to  the  early  age  of  mechanical  reproduction  coinciding  with  when  Vietnamese  lacquer  painting  was “invented” in the last century. The Lacquerscopes hijack the tools and principles of light and photography to show lacquer painting and situates Vietnamese sơn ta between painting and photography.

Text extracted from “A Contemporary Approach to Vietnamese Lacquer Painting” - Phi Phi Oanh’s essay for the International Conference “Arts du Vietnam: Nouvelles Approches”, 04 - 06.09.2014, Paris.

Some boundaries are imposed on us and some we exert upon others. Some boundaries are written on paper and some are inscribed on the landscape. They all manifest in our actions and speech. As an artist I am interested in symbolic boundaries, how they are sustained and the way we can overcome them. Stereotyping and tagging are forms of boundaries I try to confront by creating works that resist simple binary categorizations such as traditional and contemporary, local or global, male or female, authentic or contaminated, human craft vs. technology.

In the last century, Vietnamese artists started using sơn ta (Vietnamese natural lacquer) to create visual imagery imbuing this ancient varnish with critical pictorial qualities. I try to stretch the preconceived idea of what can constitute a lacquer painting while pushing for a more relevant space for the interpretation of this medium to a broader audience.

The work on display in this exhibition* is from a project called Palimpsest, a sculptural light installation consisting of a projection of miniature “lacquer skins” onto a translucent silk screen. To create the lacquer skins, I employ the traditional technique of sơn mài painting directly onto glass slides then laminating the glass.

These skins are projected through Lacquerscope devices that I have created to see lacquer painting in a dematerialized form, as light, to create a different visual encounter with the medium. Lacquer painting used in this way also reflects how we see in the age of digital reproduction - through a constant flow of immaterial images shifting in scale through the means of a machine.

*Undefined boundaries exhibition (03.03 - 31.03.2017) was organized by The Korean Cultural Center in Vietnam and Heritage Space.

Statement from exhibition Undefined boundaries (03.03 - 31.03.2017) was organized by The Korean Cultural Center in Vietnam and Heritage Space.