Ilza Burchett – About Exhibition “The Destination Point of an Oblique Line” by Dinh Thi Tham Poong

The Destination Point of an Oblique Line is the name that Dinh Thi Tham Phoong gives to her latest exhibition at Art Vietnam Gallery.

This exhibition is a mix of different thoughts held by the artist simultaneously, and widely different from one another ways of seeing [1], projected by her in a variety of — and formally — widely different ways of artistic expression.

In this exhibition, on a par with oil paintings: landscapes, interiors, figurative compositions and a (self -) portrait, there are geometrically embroidered stretched canvas panels, some of them featuring “like a small fingerprint”[2] made by the artist — gilded ceramic ornaments.

The same type of gilded ceramic ornaments are also embedded between layers of perforated Plexiglas surfaces, fashioned by the artist as free-standing objet d’art.

Also, placed on the floor of the exhibition space to invite the viewer”… to enter the mandala basket and sit within its intersecting lines to explore the interconnectedness of those around them. Points of intersection, crossing, dividing and morphing into a new existence.”[3] is the work Nature’s Nest, in the form of a large bamboo basket with a fabric cushion.

This apparent disparity in the formal artistic expression gives an impression of abruptness in Dinh Thi Tham Phoong’s artistic thoughts in pursuit of their own continuity, seeking relief in the promise of validation through sharing in the idea of Nature’s Nest.

It is acutely sensible in the deliberate juxtaposition of conceptually non-corresponding ways of expression in her diptych ‘I Think As You Do’ and is pronounced by the artist as a statement: “I perceive two ways of seeing. One, the real, actual mode of seeing the real point, and the second being the imaginary point, what one wants to see, or the aim or concentration point. These two different points connect and disconnect but they should not be too far apart or too connected.”[4].

A simultaneous articulation of formally different artistic ways of expression in the work of an artist is not an uncommon occurrence in contemporary art practices, but it seems that no matter how much apart or opposing these may seem to appear in a given body of work, the artist’s specific consistency of vision and uniqueness of touch need to be overwhelmingly present, evident, and dominate in their art for it to be intelligible, visually convincing and so appreciated.

Taking “The Destination Point of an Oblique Line” as a metaphor for “evolutive” [5] — where the ambiguous ‘oblique line’ of thought is present and evident, where it seems that ‘the destination point’ is — perhaps naturally so — ambiguously unclear, as expressed in her Plexiglas creations Destination Point of Reflection — this exhibition presents the current oeuvre of Dinh Thi Tham Phoong in an aesthetically unresolved and transitive, though self-assured mode of being.
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Notes:[1], [2], [3], [4], [5] references and quotes from ‘Exhibition The Destination Point of an Oblique Line by Dinh Thi Tham Phoong’, text/exhibition announcement from Art Vietnam Gallery as published by Hanoi Grapevine