Ồ Ạt 2025 | Showcase “Watering Queen of the Night”
07:30 am – 08 pm, 25 – 31 July 2025
Đinh Space
79Bis Điện Biên Phủ, Tân Định Ward, HCMC
Registration link
From the organizer:
The floral motif in art has always been a double-edged sword—capable of evoking transcendence yet prone to falling into cliché. Still, flowers never lose their allure, perhaps because they sit delicately between natural beauty and fleeting ephemerality.
To observe a flower is a momentary act; to care for a plant is an ongoing one. The Queen of the Night, another name for the Epiphyllum oxypetalum, is a rare cactus species originating from the rainforests of Central America, yet it has taken root in many East Asian gardens as a symbol of purity, quietude, and pride.
The Queen of the Night blooms only at midnight, for a few brief hours, and closes before dawn. No invitation, no announcement—the bloom happens silently, reserved for those patient and caring enough to wait. Biologically, this nocturnal blooming minimizes water loss, guided by the plant’s internal rhythms. But beyond its physiology, the flower teaches us about the value of a fleeting moment—an aesthetic of fragility, ungraspable, unshowy, simply appearing and then disappearing.
Art is much the same. The act of creating a work marks the beginning of observing beauty in the process of waiting. Waiting may appear still, yet it can be understood as a dynamic state of seeking. It’s a journey that goes beyond the transactional nature of questions and answers, encompassing moments of self-reflection—or, at times, a peaceful surrender of will, just as Schopenhauer once mused: art is a temporary escape from the pressure of desire, a space where one can contemplate pure beauty and momentarily forget the self and its wants.
This process cannot be rushed, cannot be forced, and demands a certain steadiness. But we can nurture it, be patient with it, and create conditions where beauty can first emerge—and only then, let understanding blossom.
Watering Queen of the Night brings together five artists in conversation around the many shades of seeking, waiting, and nurturing. Within the raw, grounded space of Đinh Space, they offer diverse aesthetic approaches:
Châu Trinh Võ Huỳnh disrupts romantic stillness with bold, visceral brushstrokes;
Trần Văn Hiếu composes tightly constructed scenes where figures seem to gaze beyond the frame, caught in stark contrasts;
Hoàng Nam Việt captures seemingly mundane moments to open up a dreamlike boundary between the real and the surreal;
Nguyễn Ngọc Thạch presents a different kind of natural grandeur—both overwhelming and tender;
Dmitri deconstructs and reassembles imagery, transcending formal limits to evoke an endless emotional resonance.
This exhibition does not center flowers as its subject, nor use them as decoration. In art, simply being seen is already a reward. And being cared for—that is the enduring act that art silently awaits, in order to thrive.
Tâm Huỳnh
Watering Queen of the Night is an official program of Ồ Ạt Festival 2025, which takes place from July 25 to 31, 2025, across multiple locations in Ho Chi Minh City.
Follow updates on event’s page.
