Paintings 2007

I love humor, and I like to make a joke about everything. Su-realism is a useful language which helps me create fun. I also mix in my paintings hi-tech and lo-tech elements. I was born and raised in an apartment block in Hanoi – Vietnam. My father was a fighting pilot, and my mother was an engineer for the Vietnam Rail Way Corporation. No one in my family was concerned about art.
In my eyes, Vietnam is one of the strangest countries in the world.
People work and behave according to certain habits originating from the agricultural way of life. We live, quarrel, build, eat...just like farmers do. In Vietnam, the culture of the village persists and has a hidden power that affects all the population. Even though we are rushing towards capitalism, this life style shall never disappear. This is what makes Vietnamese people always special, wherever they are.

sketchs

sketch for model of the building



the drawings below are some sketches of the Spaceship, i call it is AIRFARM.
i intend to buy a cart and then install the accessories on it (like wings, engines, tails, guns... with the lighting and sound system).





the accessories

3 dimentions works

Milk bottles: wood, iron, stone - 18cm high
I copy from the real milk bottle to 3 different materials (Wood, Metal, Stone), with the live size scale.




Trousers and shirts: 30 military uniforms, resin.
i collected 30 military uniforms from farmers, workers,.. (i even bought or exchanged to get them) in some locations in the northern of Vietnam. I put them into clear plastic liquid and they became hard like sculptures.
This is my first solo exhibition at Nhasan Studio - Hanoi - Vietnam.








Vinawind: 30 electric fans.
I borrowed more than 30 fans from many famylies, friends.. and put them into a room and let them run as they can. this work concern to the way Vietnamese behave together.
Goethe Institute Hanoi - Vietnam 2003 October.








color pencil: wood, paints - 30cm x 30cm x 200cm (each piece).
I bought 3 collums of a wooden house and divided them to 6 pieces of color - pencils.
i gave them negative names (red for green, yellow for blue..). This works has shown at Goethe Institute Hanoi - Vietnam 2004 October.






conductor: found stuffs, TV, Camcorder, guitare amp, microphone, ladder, pumper, buddha statue...and one person.
All these stuffs are have inputs and outputs, and also are conductor wires. People also have the same functions also have inputs and outputs and people is Conductor too.
if you know what is my inputs and what is my outputs, you will know how i am.












Flight: bamboo, paper, cloth, glue. 20m x 9m x 7m
My father was a fighting pilot, for Vietnamese Army. Bradford’s father was a fighting pilot too (American Air Force). Both of us have memories with fighting jet’s images.
Bradford and I want to build a model of a fighting jet with a form has been mixed from two different types of Jets: Mig 21 and F4 Phantom. Both types of these jets used to belong to contrary forces, and now when we have no more war, we would like to heal these contrary factors become one.
All the conflicts and violence are appear from the mis-understanding, art helps us (Bradford and i) to understand each other. The present is demonstrating this understanding by our common works.
As a gift of the present to the past and say “NO” to war and violence, we wanted to burn this model of jet at the opening.













Apartment block's model

Photoshop