Phạm Hà Ninh – Entrusted Conjectures

Opening party: Fri 23 June 2023, 06 pm
On display: 24 June – 06 Aug 2023, 11 am – 07 pm (except Monday)
Manzi Exhibition Space
No. 2 Hàng Bún alley, Hà Nội

From the organizer:

Entrusted Conjectures – an open studio by visual artist Hà Ninh Pham
Presenting a new series of “sculptures – measuring instruments” as a part of his on-going project titled “My Land”

How much of our perception of the world is shaped by the way we measure it?

Measurement refers to various systems of apparatus, units and rules based on which the uncertainty of value is reduced and can be expressed in a quantity. The standardization in measurement establishes a mutual understanding of quantities, and provides the basic reference for many disciplines. Measurement, thus, is a cornerstone of science, a fundamental step in framing and constructing the world.

In ‘Entrusted Conjectures’, we are introduced to a series of handmade instruments of measurement. This is part of ‘My Land’, the multi-year, multi-disciplinary world-building project that Hà Ninh has been working on since 2017. This territory does not correspond to any known culture in human history. It has its own systems of logic, language, and metrology that are functional only within themselves”(from Hà Ninh’s artist’s statement for ‘My Land’). Based on various materials, the construction of ‘My Land’ expands through two-dimensional drawings, three-dimensional sculptures, story writing and a virtual game. Correspondingly, there are four different “entrances”- four starting points to experience the territory. ‘Entrusted Conjectures’, featuring some realizations of the fictional metrology system provides one of the entry points.

Designed and created with a DIY aesthetic, most of the sculptures are crafted from wood, with some few elements completed with tracing paper and 3D printed plastic. Measuring instruments are presented along with the ‘display plates’ recording the data and measuring results, as well as other artifacts which have been interpreted, visualized from the outputs of measurements. The whole body of works proclaims its presence right in the center of the exhibition space and defends its autonomy with a kind of fortification: a dry moat has been dug, precisely surrounding the display area. Outside the moat, on the walls is another type of boundary, a line of sketches positioned at eye level, a vague resemblance to a horizon.

‘Entrusted Conjectures’ suggests reflections on the boundary, on the problem of trust and on the possibilities of a proof and an assumption. By juxtaposing the physicality and materiality implied in sculptures with the functionality of the instruments relied on fictional ideas and principles, an intriguing investigation begins, testing the unreality of the reality / the non-real nature of the word thought to be quantifiable and perceivable.

There will come a time when every measurement would be an act of re-measuring; as there always comes a time when people can no longer believe in the results of previous measurements. A continuous process of forming a hypothesis then proving and disproving – that’s how science is built. ‘Entrusted Conjectures’, in this version presented at manzi, is just the first step. Surely we can expect more surprises to come in the future. How far can the artist go in this journey of organizing, interpreting our world and architecting his world? A thoroughly independent scientific and technical system – an alternative definition of reality can be achieved someday, maybe?

*The open studio is organized by Manzi & A+ WORKS of ART

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