After two very long years, I have finally finished Specula. The opening is next Friday, the 4th of December at 5 pm at the Hanoi City Exhibition Hall on 93 Dinh Tien Hoang. For all those in the area, I hope you can join me!
A review of Specula by Hanoi Publishing House Art Historian Quang Viet...
Some notes on Specula for Phi Phi Oanh
The works created with son ta, a traditional medium in Vietnam, by Oanh Phi Phi always reveal innovation, large scale composition, a deep sense of belief, ambition, hard work and great effort.
The surface of this cavernous passageway, Specula, encompasses 63m2 of surface area of lacquer painting. She paints like an archeologist, but one that searches for the things that concern our contemporary life. Her method is one of deep self-reflection distilled from a life as permanent nomad from one land and one culture to another and from east to west.
A truly international contemporary artist, her body of work, especially Specula, often possesses unexpected compositional arrangements with carefully ensconced meanings touching on wider universal concepts. Yet at the same time, these works are approachable, rich in thought and overflowing with introspection. With her refined skill Phi Phi Oanh has transmogrified son mai and its substrates to embody the subject itself while keeping a spiritual and ritualistic manner of expression.
Oanh Phi Phi once mentioned there should be another Renaissance period in lacquer painting. With this important work, Specula, she is has become a catalyst in that second Renaissance.
Quang Viet, author of “Vietnamese Lacquer Painting” at the Hanoi Fine Arts Publishing House