Between Us

‘People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges.’
JOSEPH FORT NEWTON (1880 - 1950)

There has been a wall ‘between us’.

I have spent much of my time suffering from a misunderstanding of the real world. My eyes were blind, my mind was blank. Somehow, I lost myself in the reality to struggle against the rudeness, the suspicion of the world itself. Antony Gormley currently presents the world in his Blind Light exhibit at the Hayward Gallery in London. Blind Light offers two very different experiences. From the outside, you can observe people vanish as they enter the brightly lit, cloud-filled glass box, eventually emerging as shadows as they come close to its outer edges. Inside this very bright space within the box you lose yourself in light and vapour, with visibility as little as two feet. The effect is completely disorienting. Adrift in this void, we are made more conscious of our own body space as we cast blindly about, trying to find our bearings, trying to find what we once considered normal. Soon we must adjust, find a new normality, a new stability. [1]

I wanted to create a new world for myself, a world where people are friendly, competent and honest. It would be a world without masks, a world wherein people open their hearts, listen to their own voices and communicate with the others. A world that has no secrets and no lies beneath the faces. A world wherein I do not need to blind my eyes or blank my brain because of its cruelty.

Life has not only pink but white, and black. Once you have seen black, you will recognize white. If you can not see the worst, how do you learn to find the best, to be better? But I am fooling myself blind; the world out there is still on its wheel with people living under their masks, hiding themselves with secrecies, hurting others with jealousy and hatred and anger.

The black and deep desires of humans cause the invisible wall to be constructed between us. People in the modern world are living on their own islands. They cannot communicate honestly. They forget to touch, hug, share emotions. They hide their thoughts inside. They choose to be lonely. They do not want to be a cell in a multi-connection. They want their individual selves and of course this hurts others.

In the film Chicago (2002), Amos is a poor husband, running behind his wife Roxie. He always seeks her attention but she saves her affection for false celebrities. He devotes his life to her yet receives nothing in return.

‘If someone stood up in a crowd, and raised his voice up way out loud
And waved his arms and shook his legs, you’d noticed him…
And even without clucking like a hen, everyone gets noticed now and then.
Unless that personage should be invisible and inconsequential.
Of course!

Mister Cellophane,…
You can look right through me, walk right by me and never know I am there’. [2]

To understand someone and be recognized, you must know that your heart is as big as your palm. You must love anything that you can keep in it. You must understand the good and the bad; must open your eyes to look through them and notice what is inside, and what reality/unreality is. You cannot just love without understanding, without thinking, with your eyes blind.

The masks people wear during their entire lives eventually become their real faces. You cannot just walk through life without effort. It contains billions of layers, one by one asking you to remove the mask. One would be confused—are you touching the real face or not? Somehow one has lost the real face. Who knows what is under the mask, what is hiding deeply in the soul? The mask or face, the invisible world or available life, at least it is only a choice of everyone to “wear or not wear”, to be “real or unreal”.

The invisible masks can be presented in many different ways, can be in many forms. I had chosen the form of Constructed Abstract Art to present my final project. ‘Constructed Abstract Art is nuclear, that is to say one commences with a single cell/unit, a logical process of growth is applied and, as with kinetic and optical art, which are branches of construction, the whole/ effect is unforeseen until the work is complete’. [3] (Mary Martin) It creates the connection.

Theatrically, I had looked at the communication between actors/actresses and their audiences. How they present themselves on stage and lives, how they connect back and forth from real to unreal, how the mask appears available or invisible... Mask is the barrier of life, masks cover up the lies, masks create a “wall” between us. I have chosen the “bridge” construction to build my sculpture to stand as a “connected structure” between our masks. It is the right way in how it liberates the truth, to across this, to understand the other sides.

Between Us is 4 x 4 x 4 meters, a “cubic” formed by seven units, each constructed of thin bamboo sticks, tightly joined with twine, approximating the structure of a Vietnamese Bamboo Bridge. The units transform themselves one by one when viewed from differing perspectives. Six units lay on the floor; the seventh descends from the ceiling. It becomes a polyhedron within the gallery’s space and is supported by spotlights for its effect in space. The units demonstrate how powerful the entire spirit of the invisible world is. The same is true for that contained in each unit; it is small, it is subtle, yet there is great power there. It is reflected in the real world via our parallel and objective views.

Between Us is a modular system by which its transformation back and forth from bridge to wall demonstrates the visualization of how a human’s face begins to create its mask. Early man’s desire for transformation, for losing his identity of face and shape, emerged from his seemingly contradictory need for self-repulsion as well as for total possession of himself. In order to make the charm work for life, they felt they had to conceal their identity, to shake off their corporeal existence. Making this self-effacing act more effective, primitive man put on an artificial face and admitted with it another spirit. ‘The masked person becoming the impersonated spirit of the mask truly believed himself to be in possession of the mask’s demonic powers’. (7–8, The Mystery of the Other Face, The Other Face: The Mask In The Arts by Walter Sorell, 1973.) The mask is the barrier that you must cross to become close with others. This barrier, whether it is visible or invisible, prevents people from communicating with each other. This is a “wall” between and against us to prevent creation of a true relationship of humanity; it separates our thoughts. Once we have it, we will not let it go and it automatically becomes us someday. Historically, how many walls people built to block the other side? When the country had been divided, people create their own walls as a barrier to each other. The Berlin Wall (1961 - 1989), an iconic symbol of the Cold War, divided East and West Berlin; the partition of South and North Việt Nam; the division of South and North Korea… Times goes by. History changes. But those who love to create their own walls will they still hate the other side in their soul? [4]

As Sorell wrote:

“The mask is the beginning, trauma and essence of all metamorphoses, it is the tragic bridge from life into death, it is the illusion of another reality, or the disguise with which man reaches reality on a higher plane, stronger in its awareness, clearer and more concrete in its expression than the elusive image of reality itself. The mask contains the magic of illusion without which man is unable to live.” (Walter Sorell)

Absolutely! When you put on your mask and live with this, it forms a tragic bridge from life into death. You form the illusion of another reality and you think it is true. You force yourself to move on with this and it becomes your personality. At the end, you realize it is a hallucination but you are trapped in the marsh, and doomed until death.

The “illusory tragic bridge” I had built connects people and shores. It is slender in materials but strong in structure, small in mass but huge in function. It contains hundreds of steps crisscrossing the country’s inland waterways just as the many steps and layers you must pass through to cross your mind. It stands for reality and hallucination. It stands for the power of communication, of reflection and connection which would not exist without it. This is the mask of reality. People must move across it step by step, layer by layer to reach what they want to become, what they want to see, what they would like to discover and to understand about the other side. No doubt, in our lives we cannot live without bridges. The world is 70% water. The world is floating. How can we stay together in peace without the support of bridges? How can we be close together without understanding people on the other side?

As Joseph Fort Newton (1880-1950) said, ‘People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges.’ Why they do want to be so lonely? It is not only that they like loneliness but also because they have many things hidden behind their minds. Their secrecies are kept under their masks. They build walls to hide them, to create gaps between others, to defend and protect themselves. When they touch the truth, they resort to living in denial, which helps them literately erase everything that they don’t want to accept.

Stars, hide your fires.
Let not light see my black and deep desires.
(William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act 1, Sense 4) [5]

I chose bamboo as my main material because bamboo has power, and its own life. The Vietnamese use bamboo not only to build bridges but also to build shelters, screens and to fashion spikes to kill enemies in “blind ditches”. Bamboo reflects a both sides material that represents connection (the bridge) and separation (bamboo screen); protection (bamboo dome) and destroyer (spikes). Bamboo is weak in the individual stalk but unbreakable in a group. Bamboo has its voice. Its unique and attractive surface brings one closer to touch it and to understand.

Bamboo is chosen to represent the invisible world, where the mask hides; it is possible to look at the variation of forms, the transformation of objects. Viewers will be asked to look right through the material, feel it, and question what is happening in their emotions. They also will be asked unconsciously to accept that the denial that was created never existed. Then, you will have to live with your own reality. Only with the truth. Only with your own bare face. No matter how many masks you are wearing, your bare face is the only one that you realize by yourself. You cannot abandon it. The mask, whether it becomes yours or not, is fake indeed. And only you live with it. You must remove it someday, to become close with the one with whom you want to be close.

The triangle shapes within the bridge lead the arrangements of Between Us to create a “wall” inside the “bridge” unit. Those meanings overlap together as an integral part of its form. Once you come closer, you feel there is an invisible wall between you and your neighbours. You must find your way to cross it. You can follow where the bridge unit leads you; you can be trapped; you can just turn your back and walk out of the “maze”. You are making your own decision to act.

“…Who gain the world and lose their soul.
They don't know. They can't see. Are you one of them?
…And the time will come when you see we're all one,
and Life flows on within you and without you.”
Within You, Without You George Harrison (1943 – 2001) [6]

The disorganization of the units brings up issues what the world is. It is unbalanced, unfair. It is distorted in many directions. It is not stationary but in perpetual movement. Life does not wait, it moves on. Those units lay with different angles, create different alleys that can influence the viewers to continue or halt their thinking journeys.

A huge spotlight beaming directly onto Between Us creates shadows on the floor and ceiling. Its lights shine up the black and deep desires contained on and within the artwork. Its lights create the power of communication that people really need in life. This installation work is a combination of light, shadow, bamboo, silver wires and strings; it is a transformation of “wall” or “bridge” in its modular system; it is a connection of human faces and psychological feelings. On the way to view the artwork, viewers will find their own acts, their true beauty. As Elisabeth Kubler-Ross (1926 - 2004) said: ‘People are like stained - glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.’ [7]

I was once told: “Go your own way. Seek your own ideas. Create your own visions.” This final work is a mix between abstract ideals, construction techniques and dealing with many different kinds of materials: wires, cloth, string, bamboo. In my opinion, the differences of style, technique and materials support my art and make it more impressive. This is the reason I choose to be a person who is “between the lines” of realist and surrealist. Being there, I can fully express my mind, my heart, my thoughts and instincts, desires and sensibilities and achieve my goal of making art come to life and in doing so, to have people receive my art as a gift of life.

Date: 21st August 2007

................................................................................................

NOTES:

[1] The Hayward Gallery presents Blind Light, the first major London showing of the work of British sculptor Antony Gormley (17 May–19 August 2007). The exhibition features a series of brand new monumental works specially conceived for The Hayward’s distinctive spaces, including one of the largest ever urban public art commissions, Event Horizon, which features sculptural casts of the artist’s body on rooftops and public walkways across central London, dramatically transforming the city skyline. These new works, including a spectacular series of suspended figures created in light-infused webs of steel, are shown alongside a selection of works from the last three decades.

[2] Chicago. 2002, Director Bob Marshall, with Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renée Zellweger, and Richard Gere. Screenwriter Bill Condon. Released by Miramax Films.

[3] A. Bowness, ‘The Constructive Art of Mary Martin’, Studio International, vol. 175, no. 898, March 1968, p121.

[4]

The Berlin Wall was a separation barrier between West and East Germany. This is an iconic symbol of the Cold War, the wall divided East and West Berlin for 28 years, from the day construction began on August 13, 1961 until it was dismantled in 1989. During this period 125 people were killed trying to escape to the West. The fall of the Berlin wall paved the way for German reunification, which was formally concluded on October 3, 1990.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall

The Korean War began as a civil war fought between 1950–1953 on the Korean Peninsula, which had been divided by the post-World War II Soviet and American occupation zones. The civil war began on June 25, 1950, when North Korea attacked South Korea. The civil war was greatly expanded when the United Nations, led by the United States, and later Peoples' Republic of China, entered the conflict. The conflict ended when a cease-fire was reached on July 27, 1953. The principal support on the side of North Korea was the People's Republic of China, with limited assistance by Soviet combat advisors, military pilots, and weapons. South Korea was supported by United Nations Command forces in Korea (U.N.) forces, primarily from the United States, although many other nations also contributed personnel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War

The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, the American War in Vietnam and the Vietnam Conflict, occurred from 1959 to April 30, 1975 in Vietnam. The war was fought between the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) and the United States-supported Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). The result of the war was defeat of the Southern and American forces, and unification of Vietnam under the communist government of the North. The Vietnam War concluded on 30 April 1975, with the Fall of Saigon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War

[5] Macbeth is among the best known of William Shakespeare's plays, as well as his shortest surviving tragedy. It is frequently performed at professional and community theatres around the world. The play, loosely based upon the historical account of King Macbeth of Scotland by Raphael Holinshed and the Scottish philosopher Hector Boece, is often seen as an archetypal tale of the dangers of the lust for power and betrayal of friends.

DUNCAN
My worthy Cawdor!

MACBETH [Aside.]
48 The Prince of Cumberland! that is a step
49 On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap,
50 For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires,
51 Let not light see my black and deep desires;
52 The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be
53 Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.

… Exit

[6] George Harrison, guitarist, singer, songwriter, born 25 February 1943; died 30 November 2001. Harrison was a popular British songwriter, musician and film producer best known as a member of the Beatles. In the mid 1960s he began playing the sitar, which influenced the sound of "The Beatles" music in such songs as Norwegian Wood, Love You To, and Within You Without You.

[7] Quote from http://www.dailycelebrations.com/110399.htm

* Light From Within

"People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within." - Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

With her best-selling book On Death and Dying (1969), Swiss-born psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (1926-2004), born with what she called "a great desire to help," gave the world a pioneering explanation of what we all understand implicitly: ‘Dying is a process’.

between the lines of realist and surrealist

I was once told: “Go your own way. Seek your own ideas. Create your own visions.” I listened closely. The first time my art teacher saw one of my paintings, in which I had portrayed the power of an Asian Tiger, he commented, “You are standing on the line between realism and surrealism. Keep it this vision—never give it up.”

However, even the most original and striking vision cannot emerge from nowhere; I have had great influences in on my painting. Three artists in particular, although extremely different in attitude, technique, even the eras in which they worked, have had a momentous effect on me. I have of course always strived to develop my own style, but Salvador Dali, Lorna Hannett and Pae White have deeply affected the direction of my vision, my choice of materials and my general attitude toward art.

It was around the time of my teacher’s comment that I was on the way to discovering who I am and how to show my mind deeply through art, and it was then that I saw my first Dali painting, “The Persistence of Memory, 1931.” For me the painting detailed how memory conquers even endless time. Time had gone, ants had destroyed clock, other clocks had melted, everything was dead, but memory remained forever. I instantly felt that I understood; I was moved and inspired.

Dali’s importance has been well documented and he is famous as one of the great surrealists. For me his great impact on art was his willingness to explore the psyche, entering practically delusional states of mind and then accurately and meaningfully reproducing what he saw there on canvas. With his “Paranoiac Critical” and “Oniric-Critical” methods he found a new way of perceiving reality that he defined as "irrational knowledge" based on a "delirium of interpretation." Dali referred to this work as “hand-painted dream photographs”—physical, painted representations of the hallucinations and images he would see while in his paranoid state.

One can imagine the effect this had on a young painter who saw things differently from others in a very conservative and old fashioned culture like Viet Nam’s! I felt released, emboldened, trusted with an important secret. Of course I could not do what Dali did or do it like he did it, but his adventures helped me understand, appreciate and be courageous with my own thoughts and feelings about art. Perhaps most simply but effectively, Dali referred to the "ingenuity of childhood," in which he did not paint as a child would, but maintained an open mind and the curiosity and excitement of the child throughout one's life. This too had a tremendous effect on my work.

Thus Dali shaped me by showing me possibilities and freedom, and giving a name to something I thought unnamable. If you refer to the two selections from my “Slum Series” included, you will see my own version of how what I saw growing up as a child has influenced the woman as artist, and how I have created my own “hand-painted dream photographs.”

As I progressed in my life and art—they always move hand in hand—I began pondering a mix of surrealism and realism. It was at this time that I saw “Mary Ann Rose,” created by Lorna Hannett, a Canadian wildlife artist. Hannett has won numerous awards for her wide variety of subjects depicted in realistic style. Primarily self-taught, she utilizes a variety of mediums including acrylics, watercolour, coloured pencil, pastel, graphite and one that really captured me, “scratchboard art.”

I like Hannett’s work not only for its technique but for what it depicts. She is a very good artist who can breathe the soul of her objects into art. Looking at the “Mary Ann Rose” picture, one can feel each light movement of rose petals, smell the scent of rose perfume, touch the dew on the leaf… That is the real life, but underneath the real life as a rose, there has a different meaning. It is “Life is a rose, it blossoms and then fades quickly. Nothing can maintain the same condition forever.” In its way, that is the same message as Dali's “The Persistence of Memory.”

I don’t paint animals, children and natural life studies like Hannett, but I thought, “What if I make my fantasies in scratchboard like she did? How will my abstracts look like if created with different methods and materials than the traditional oil and canvas?” So, I tried it.

ScratchArt or scratchboard art as it is commonly called is done on a material called Claybord Black. It is a masonite board covered in white Kaolin clay and then sprayed with India ink. Drawings are placed onto the board using white transfer paper. Then a small Xacto knife (#11 blade) or a scalpel is used to make small, sometimes tiny scratches in varying depths, revealing the white beneath—and eventually the image emerges. This can be left as is at this point or one can “color” it, using thin coats of acrylic paint or the colored inks made especially for claybord. The paint is scratched in again and again to achieve the depth of color and highlights desired. It is then coated with a spray sealer to protect the finished piece.

This technique resembles etching or engraving in theory, with the difference supplied by the materials. I created the engravings in my portfolio “Sapa’s Spirit” and “The End of the Day” with this technique. I sketch the layout on white transfer paper, then transfer it to the wood board with the negative side. I use my wood cut knife set, chose the right blade for each part of the drawing. I then print it onto a special Vietnamese paper known as “giay do” with different colors of ink, paint or powder. I feel it is possible to create surreal subjects by utilizing this special way of engraving, etching or “scratching.”

The third major influence I can cite is from the new generation—it is Californian Pae White, a contemporary artist whose work is extremely impressive.

White works on the borderlines between art, design and graphics. While working on numerous advertising projects she developed an idiosyncratic style of layout which has been described as ”modernist mannerism.” Her graphic designs give a sense of vivid colors and fragility and her sculptures share these characteristics. What particularly caught my eye are her mobiles, which she creates mobiles from fine slips of paper on nylon thread. As has been noted, this forms “a dense, shimmering, ornamental network.»

Sometimes White goes the opposite direction, creating solid masses, such as “Birds and Ship, 2000.” Such creations are formed with layers of orange Plexiglas lying on the floor. Laminate glue is applied unevenly between the layers to create patterns, giving an impression both of solidity and flowing movement.

I also like her “Clock, 2000,” which is a series of twelve cardboard - wall clocks in different colors, made using the simple techniques of cutting out and folding. The clocks do not tell the time in the usual way. They have their own mechanism, and each one stands for a sign of the zodiac. They are surreal, fun and though-provoking. White’s abstract, handcrafted – creations don’t serve a function and cannot be classified as “design.” They also don’t seem to follow any ideology or theory. Rather, they communicate through the hallucinatory effect of the solid impenetrable surfaces that cover them. They are simultaneously beautiful and impenetrable, so that is why they appeal so strongly to me.

White is a great influence on me for different reasons. Most obviously, our work is similar—not in appearance, but in basic theory. Like me, she likes to play with materials, utilizing anything from glass, string and laminated FedEx waybills to wire, thread, newsprint, and snakeskin on various creations.

White’s explorations with materials strike a deep chord in me. I have always been very interested in working with different materials, believing that any and each kind of material allows me different perspectives and feelings, and this in turn allows me to harness and apply my ideas and make me visions be realised.

Until recently I have not considered myself a contemporary artist and have not created anything similar to Pae White’s art. But this changed when I began developing my ideas in the autumn of 2005 for my next exhibition. I grew up in an impoverished district of Ho Chi Minh City, although I have wonderful memories from childhood. In 2003, the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City began a social program to destroy the slums in my old neighborhood and replace them with low-income housing. The work commenced in the summer of 2005, giving rise to my inspiration. The slums are now gone and new buildings are being completed in order to relocate thousands of people. But somehow, the buildings are as ugly as prisons and the people in them are even more miserable than before.

This drove me to create my “Slum and Sunshine Life Series,” to depict both the present and the past, in order to retain the images that have lasted in my mind for twenty years. As noted earlier, the series springs from a dream I have had since childhood. At this time, everyone in my country was desperately poor. The Vietnamese had a saying then: “No one is richer, no one is poorer.” We all lived in the same situation, in the same kind of houses—some, like mine, made of cardboard—that are known as “slums.” Since that time, some of my childhood friends have become wealthy, some not, but all of us have retained unforgettable good memories of our childhood. We played under the rain, swam in green rivers, ran through the noisy markets... I want to keep our wonderful childhood memories alive through my slum series as a gift for all the people who were there with me, showing our wonderful life amidst the squalor that surrounded us. I also want those who were never there and never knew it to know it, feel and understand it.

Utilizing an array of materials, some of them “found” and others carefully designed, the first two selections in the series are “DAY” and “NIGHT,” as these are the two more important terms during the 24 hours of a day. The new modern buildings and the old poor paper slums are mixed together. They have shown their “beauties” under the light and dark and the beauty of the souls that inhabit them—not of the place where they are located or the materials of which they are constructed.

With the “Slum and Sunshine Life” series I am standing between the lines of realist and surrealist. My next piece in the series will push this even further. It may well be something of a mix between abstract painting, scratching technique or working with many different kinds of materials. In my opinion, the differences of style, technique and materials support to my art and make it more impressive. This is the reason I choose to be a person who is “between the lines.” Being there, I can fully express my mind, my heart, my thoughts and instincts, desires and sensibilities and achieve my goal of making art come to life and in doing so, to have people receive my art as a gift of life.

It can be seen that all three artists I have discussed here—Dali, Hannett and White—have shaped my ideas, perspectives and use of materials. My work looks nothing like theirs, yet is filled with their inspiration. As Dali said: "My whole ambition in the pictorial domain is to materialize the images of my concrete irrationality with the most imperialist fury of precision..it makes the world of delirium pass onto the plane of reality." Yes, the step from reality to dream is just a thin line but this line is so powerful for my art. I choose it as the way to go forward.

*Life on the river - Color wood engraving, 60x60cm, 2002