Mosaic of polychrome–glazed ceramic tiles.

Lelf panel: 182 × 322 × 4.5 cm.

Right panel: 181.5 × 322.5 × 4 cm.

Description

Taking a grain of sand from the ground, Phạm Minh Hiếu sought to discover if indeed, a world existed within it. Using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), the artist was able to take multiple hi-resolution scans of the particle’s surface displaying a landscape of mountains, cliffs and valleys mirroring what we perceive as the world around us but on a microscopic scale. These observations, however, were not without consequence as the act of imaging requires the machine to bombard the surface of the particle with streams of electrons, altering the very surface that is being captured – the presence of the observer simultaneously capturing and changing the nature of the object being observed.

Having discovered the hitherto imperceptible hidden worlds contained within the grain of sand, the artist then used another tool, a focused ion beam system, to mill shapes of his own footprints onto the landscape within the particle. This area was then once again imaged resulting in a fabricated proof of his presence and entanglement with the object.

Having constructed the proof of his presence at the microscopic level, in 2023 the artist determined to materialise the captured image to scale whereby the milled footprints are presented as life-sized. Working with a team of artisans from the ancient ceramic village of Bat Trang in the north of Vietnam, the image was painstakingly reproduced into the form of mosaic panels. After multiple transformations, the artwork is the result of the entanglement between the original grain of sand, the artist and the craftsmen. With a nod to monolithic sculpture, the two immersive panels (about 300 kg each) hover slightly above the ground, obscuring the observer’s entire field of vision with their obtuse angle. The viewers are pulled into another entangled observation; the small step of looking becoming a leap to arrive at 'somewhere'.

Source: Galerie Quynh.