Installation 3 channel color video with sound, Handcrafted full-size Helicopter.
Helicopter: 250 x 1070 x 350cm. Video duration: 00:15:00.
Collaborating Artists: Trần Quốc Hải, Lê Văn Danh, Hà Thúc Phù Nam, Tuan Andrew Nguyen.

Description

The Farmers and The Helicopters (2006), an installation comprised of a three-channel video and a helicopter hand-built from scrap parts by Lê Van Danh, a farmer, and Trần Quốc Hải, a self-taught mechanic. The helicopter played an important military role during the war and has become a resonant object for many Vietnamese. While many of the interviewees in the installation’s video relay childhood memories of the horrors associated with helicopters during the war, the helicopter-makers share their vision of this machine as a means to make a better life for the Vietnamese people and bring strength to their community. Installed in adjacent galleries, the helicopter and the video projection offer a multilayered insight into the complex relationships between the Vietnamese individuals and the charged object of the helicopter.

Artwork is commissioned by Queenland Art Gallery, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia.