The ruins of a communal house at artist Le Giang’s exhibition (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) -Remnants of altars, carved letters in the old Nom script, carvings,architectural posts and beams have been collected together to honour dinh lang,the ancient Vietnamese communal houses that still dot the country.
They are being displayed at an exhibition that opened late last week in Hanoi.
The exhibition Vestige of a Land explores the life of communal housesalong the Red River plains, a major birthplace of Kinh (Vietnamese) culture.
Artist Le Giang has made plaster models of some objects to inform visitors ofthe use of dinh lang in the past - as accommodation for visitingdignitaries, including nobles and kings, as places to pay respects to villagedeities and village scholars, and as a place for villagers to gather on specialoccasions.
The show reflects the cyclical fluctuations of the Red River and how theyinfluenced the modification of spiritual monuments.
The artist acknowledged that social and cultural changes have loosened bondsbetween past and present. Social activities that used to take place within thewalls of such monuments have drastically altered to the point that many ofsurviving structures are falling into decay and are losing their identities.
“Recognising the eventual disappearance of spiritual relics, the exhibitionraises questions on how Vietnam can draw from the past to refresh the new. Wemust ask ourselves where we stand today and what visions we have,” said Giang.“We may not have definite answers, but unearthing artefacts from the past maygive us some clues to the quest.”
Giang said ruins were a long-standing aesthetic fascination for her. "Inmany ways, ruins constitute an embodiment of the past, while remaining temporallylinked to our present time," she said.
“This is how I choose to question the relationship between humankind and thenatural world. The excavated reconstructed communal houses use thearchitectural ornamentation found in my father’s hometown village in Dong Anh district,Hanoi.”
The ruins of a communal house, altar, cuon thu (wooden scrollplacards) and wooden beams have been cast in plaster.
“Perhaps, this is a futile act of personal attachment to an incessant rivermoving us forward in an ever-changing nature and society," said Giang.
The exhibition is the result of six months cooperation between the artist,Sino-Nom researcher Nguyen Dinh Hung, vernacular architect Pham ThanhThuy and environmental consultant Nguyen Thuy Duong.
They joined the project, Shaping the Future – A Cultural Perspective,which was founded by the Goethe Institute.
After completing her MA in Fine Arts in London, Giang returned to her nativeHanoi.
Her works range from installations to illustration, often feature fragile materialslike ash, glass, coal and plaster. Giang has exhibited in groups and solo inBritain, Singapore, Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam.
The exhibition will run until January 12 at the Hanoi Goethe Institute, 56-58Nguyen Thai Hoc Street.
A talk show by researcher Hung will take place on December 20. He will talkabout woodblocks used for Sino-Nom script.
After the initiation of other printing techniques from Europe as well as thedisappearance of Sino-Nom, the wooden blocks soon lost their establishedfunction as the only way of producing manuscripts. Under harsh conditions suchas climates and termites, these relics slowly dematerialised over time whichresulted in substantial loss of knowledge.-VNA
They are being displayed at an exhibition that opened late last week in Hanoi.
The exhibition Vestige of a Land explores the life of communal housesalong the Red River plains, a major birthplace of Kinh (Vietnamese) culture.
Artist Le Giang has made plaster models of some objects to inform visitors ofthe use of dinh lang in the past - as accommodation for visitingdignitaries, including nobles and kings, as places to pay respects to villagedeities and village scholars, and as a place for villagers to gather on specialoccasions.
The show reflects the cyclical fluctuations of the Red River and how theyinfluenced the modification of spiritual monuments.
The artist acknowledged that social and cultural changes have loosened bondsbetween past and present. Social activities that used to take place within thewalls of such monuments have drastically altered to the point that many ofsurviving structures are falling into decay and are losing their identities.
“Recognising the eventual disappearance of spiritual relics, the exhibitionraises questions on how Vietnam can draw from the past to refresh the new. Wemust ask ourselves where we stand today and what visions we have,” said Giang.“We may not have definite answers, but unearthing artefacts from the past maygive us some clues to the quest.”
Giang said ruins were a long-standing aesthetic fascination for her. "Inmany ways, ruins constitute an embodiment of the past, while remaining temporallylinked to our present time," she said.
“This is how I choose to question the relationship between humankind and thenatural world. The excavated reconstructed communal houses use thearchitectural ornamentation found in my father’s hometown village in Dong Anh district,Hanoi.”
The ruins of a communal house, altar, cuon thu (wooden scrollplacards) and wooden beams have been cast in plaster.
“Perhaps, this is a futile act of personal attachment to an incessant rivermoving us forward in an ever-changing nature and society," said Giang.
The exhibition is the result of six months cooperation between the artist,Sino-Nom researcher Nguyen Dinh Hung, vernacular architect Pham ThanhThuy and environmental consultant Nguyen Thuy Duong.
They joined the project, Shaping the Future – A Cultural Perspective,which was founded by the Goethe Institute.
After completing her MA in Fine Arts in London, Giang returned to her nativeHanoi.
Her works range from installations to illustration, often feature fragile materialslike ash, glass, coal and plaster. Giang has exhibited in groups and solo inBritain, Singapore, Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam.
The exhibition will run until January 12 at the Hanoi Goethe Institute, 56-58Nguyen Thai Hoc Street.
A talk show by researcher Hung will take place on December 20. He will talkabout woodblocks used for Sino-Nom script.
After the initiation of other printing techniques from Europe as well as thedisappearance of Sino-Nom, the wooden blocks soon lost their establishedfunction as the only way of producing manuscripts. Under harsh conditions suchas climates and termites, these relics slowly dematerialised over time whichresulted in substantial loss of knowledge.-VNA
VNA
