MAP-exTalk 5: “Radiant Material”
Wed 25 Oct 2017, 3 – 5 pm
Heritage Space Library
From Heritage Space:
Heritage Space proudly presents MAP-exTalk 5 “RADIANT MATERIAL – A dialogue with Vietnamese lacquer” with a lecture of Visual-multimedia artist Phi Phi Oanh from Hanoi (Vietnam). It is a part of the exchange series in “Month of Arts Practice 2017” organized by Heritage Space.
‘Sơn Ta’, a resinous substance extracted from the Rhus Sucedanea tree native to North Viet Nam, has been collected and processed artisanally for hundreds of years. Traditionally, the resin was used to cover wood and everyday objects not just as decoration, but also to protect them from termites and other insects as well as changes in temperature and humidity. Beginning in the 1930’s, Sơn Ta was adapted as a fine arts painting medium and a mode of creative artistic expression, which will become known as Tranh Sơn Mài. Since then, Vietnamese lacquer painting is often considered a ‘traditional’ artistic medium.
This presentation will explore Vietnamese lacquer painting as a medium of rich research and conceptual possibilities, and its development from a traditional medium into contemporary arts. I will use several of my installation works such as Black Box, Specula and Palimpsest to trace these strategies and suggest the development of a broader more intertextual strategy of approaching Tranh Sơn Mài. This constitutes a categorical transformation in the use of Sơn Ta, and one that relates the medium to relevant questions about, environment, identity and experience, memory, the nature of territory.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Phi Phi Oanh is a Vietnamese American artist. graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Parsons School of Design in 2002, and a Masters in Art and Research from the Complutense University of Madrid in 2012. In 2004 she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study traditional Tranh Sơn Mài (Vietnamese lacquer painting) in Hanoi. It has since become a key medium in her practice. Phi Phi Oanh’s work combines sơn mài with new materials and technologies to extend the scope of the medium as image, reflect on cross cultural histories and situate the medium in a broader art discourse. She currently lives and works in Hanoi, Vietnam.
More about the artist could be seen here.
ABOUT MAP 2017
MAP-exTalk is the core of “Month of Art Practice – MAP 2017” project. The aim is to strengthen the motivation and enrich the Exchange program by lectures/ workshops from selected guest artists/ curators/ creators from various disciplines
For further information about MAP 2017 project, please visit here
Language: English and Vietnamese with translation
Free admission
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© Image cover is courtesy of the National Gallery Singapore and artist Phi Phi Oanh
Information on the previous MAP-Talk events:
MAP-Talk 1 “Public Art – From Theory to Practice”
Utopia Land – Month of Arts Practice Talk 2
MAP-exTalk 2: “Cover / Limit” by Phan Quang
MAP-Talk 3: “Individual, Community and Arts”
MAP-exTalk 4: “Time Boomerang” with UuDam Tran Nguyen
MAP-Talk 4: “The Last Variations”
Heritage Space is a combination of an art gallery, a library, a concert hall, co-working office, residency space, artist studios and some open-stages, which has the capacity to host art exhibitions, music events, educational programs, multi-creative forms, artist-in-residency programs and others. Run by a group of curators, artists, researchers, musicians and architects, Heritage Space’s mission is to become a HUB for individuals and groups working on multi-disciplines from both inside and outside of the country to support and develop the creative industries in Vietnam.
| Heritage Space 1st Floor, Dolphin Plaza 6 Nguyen Hoang (for car) | 28 Tran Binh (for bike), My Dinh 2, Hanoi Tel: 024 6254 3319 – Hotline: 090 282 6769 Email: [email protected] Website: heritagespace.com Facebook: fb.co/HeritageSpace |
