Art Vietnam – Blood, Sweat & Tears

Posted on 21/09/2008

Opening: Fri 26 Sept, 6pm
Exhibition: 26 Sept-15 Oct 2008

“Blood, Sweat & Tears” – a dynamic collection of monoprints by American artist Donald Damask.

This exhibition takes its inspiration from the surfaces that create the texture of life in Hanoi. These Giclee monoprints are the result of a series of photographs the artist shot while in Hanoi in 2005. They have not been digitally manipulated or enhanced; instead they are an attempt to heighten the actual only by way of the quality of the materials used and the selective vision of the artist. Each of these 22 images is printed in an edition of one on handmade cotton rag paper from Italy.

Complementing the Giclee monoprints is a series of 11 sculpted paper works that are inspired from the traditional handmade Do paper of Vietnam. During the same visit to Hanoi which inspired the monoprints, Damask discovered Do paper – a uniquely Vietnamese paper which had been used by laymen, artisans, and artists for centuries. Today only two families remain for whom the creation of this Do paper remains a viable profession and they are kept in business almost entirely by the artistic community of Vietnam. Ever cognizant of the distinctive beauty of handcrafted paper and of time’s ability to efface even the most longstanding traditions, Damask began to integrate the Do paper into much of his subsequent work. For “Blood, Sweat & Tears” the artist chose to experiment in the three dimensional form further compounding his love of color and texture. Printing broad swathes of color onto the layered Do paper, Damask twists and manipulates the paper into an abstract sculpted object. The folds and bends of the paper enhance and exaggerate the variations of color, accentuating the difference between line and surface. Piercing each work is a single thorn imposing the vulgarity that nature can exercise upon all structured compositions.