Rendezvous Between the Old & the New

Photo: Thành Trung

Rendezvous between the Old & the New

One person show

Contemporary art Space, Vietnamese Women's Museum
Co-organized by Vietnam National Museum of History
7th December 2019 - 7th May 2020

This series is the sequel to Folk Painting: The Remake, where Xuân-Lam continues to experiment with traditional Vietnamese folk paintings. In this iteration, he scales up his pencil-drawing and digital gradient renditions, printed with UV ink and mounted on PVC boards, meticulously cut-out, thus transforming the small figures of folk paintings into life-sized reliefs. This labor-intensive process liberates the folk art from the constraints of their traditional frames, amplifying their cultural significance through the enlarged, vibrant iconography.

Installed in a white-box setting of a contemporary art space, the larger format subverts the original role of these works as domestic ornamental elements, inviting viewers to engage more deeply with the energy of the reliefs. Reflecting Frantz Fanon’s idea that culture must evolve to resist the imprints of colonialism and adapt to the changing dynamics of contemporary society, the show raises questions about how we interact with cultural symbols as they evolve in a modernized world.

Princess of the Forest
166 x 120cm (65.3 x 47.2 inches)

The Third Prince Riding the Fish
166 x 120cm (65.3 x 47.2 inches)

The First Prince Riding the Snake
166 x 120cm (65.3 x 47.2 inches)

Mighty Red Tiger
152 x 120cm (59.8 x 47.2 inches)

Five Tigers
152 x 120cm (59.8 x 47.2 inches)

Lady Triệu
170 x 125cm (66.9 x 49.2 inches)

The Trưng sisters
183 x 125cm (72 x 49.2 inches)

Four Musicians (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter)
Spring: 163 x 99cm (64.2 x 39 inches), Summer: 170cm x 90cm (66.9 x 35.4 inches)
Autumn: 163cm x 107cm (64.2 x 42.1 inches), Winter: 168cm x 94cm (66.1 x 37 inches)