- 06 June - Art Vietnam Gallery is honored to present Three Themes, a collection of new works by the Scottish artist Jim Goodall.

Art Vietnam Gallery
06-27 June

Opening: Fri 06 June, 6 pm

Jim Goodall

Three Themes

Three Themes begins in the present then journeys back through time discovering the evolution of a place and the people who live there. When one reaches the final body of work - the palace gardens – a quiet and universal sense of simplicity resounds. By the close of Three Themes Goodall has explored both the roots and the trajectory of Vietnamese culture, leaving in his wake a series of finely crafted portraits, remembrances, and vignettes.

The lens opens wide: movement and light are refracted through a prism of altered perception. The foreign artist is a stranger in a strange land. The normal and mundane become unique points of interest as life is perceived and recorded from a different perspective. Jim Goodall, a Scottish artist living and working in Hanoi since 2000, has produced a body of work that encapsulates this view from the outside looking in. From a distance casual observation is intensified as small gestures and minute details take on inordinate proportions highlighting the heightened intensity of life.

Jim Goodall’s Three Themes is an examination of Vietnam present and Vietnam past.

Taken as a whole, Three Themes contemplates the cycle of life by exploring the interconnectedness of three distinct categories:

• the everyday life of present-day Hanoians
• the temples of Southeast Asia - from the Cham dynasty to Ankor Wat to Ming-Manh
• and the ornamental palace gardens of the ancient aesthetics

‘The Hanoi Series – The People’

is a body of work that exemplifies this acute monitoring of the daily life of the people. The explosions of color and abundance of tropical fruits spilling forth from the street vendor’s stall exude the lush sensual warmth of the tropics. An old man - hands lying quietly in his lap - escapes the relentless heat by retreating into the shadows for rest and contemplation. The afternoon napper - in a singlet and cotton pajamas – denies Mother Time and life seems to be suspended, permitting the essential respite necessary for life to go on. The glimpse into a shop interior - with its passage way open to the domestic life of the shop keeper - permits the viewer to enter this intimate space while remaining at a courteous distance. Here the act of observation remains coolly removed and suspended in time exemplifying the very nature of the outsider looking in.
In contrast the works ‘Hanoi Club’,‘ Builder’s Boy’, and ‘Fishing near the Sheraton’ openly acknowledge and intimately document the rapid growth of Vietnamese society and its effect on the everyday life of Hanoians. ‘Lane 31’, ‘Nghi Tam’, and ‘Asian Parnassus’ illustrate the life of the new privileged class emboldened by their place in a society with access to luxuries and the long denied outside world. ‘Self Portrait’ completes this series as the artist - accompanied by all the trappings of his interior and exterior life - silently observes and reflects upon this land where destiny has cast him.

‘The Temple Walls’

series is reminiscent of the artist’s earlier work exhibited at Art Vietnam Gallery in 2005. Utilizing a broad palette knife, the artist smears paint freely on the Do paper where it flows into accidental spaces and shapes. Goodall allows these forms to suggest the image that will eventually appear by way of his deft use of fine ink lines. History, nostalgia, reverence for the past, and the inaccessible life of the ancients drift out of the dreamy atmosphere evoked by the shadow forms that emerge.

‘Garden Reflections’

are fanciful, imaginative ruminations conjuring up the lush playgrounds of the ancient nymphs and muses who appear on the temple walls. Verdant foliage suggests a rich abundance in which both meditation and frolic flourishes. Nature’s richness is recreated by delicate, deliberate lines that exemplify the purpose of these quiet contemplative gardens as a place to find joy and reflect -a true refuge for the heart and mind.

Three Themes is a visual journey in three stages. It voyages from the reality of here-and-now to the temple walls that remind us of the cycle of time and our own mortality, and finally alights upon the simple spirituality and humility found in the gardens of the ancient aesthetics. It is a cycle where the end and the beginning merge - a cycle in which we all take part.

Opening: Fri 06 June, 6 pm

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