» An example of a speech I, II, III, IV, V

Created in the context of intense social–environmental conflicts in the latter half of the 2010s, An example of a speech is Ngo Dinh Bao Chau’s artistic reaction to the construction and consumption of daily public images and narratives.  

The artwork uses the manual folding technique based on the principle of lenticular printing: when viewed from different angles, viewers see different images. This visual effect expresses the equivocality of things – a sense of conflict and multivalence that reminds Bao Chau of the experience of watching TV news every night, where information is both clearly presented and ambiguous, and the condensation is not the content but often the image of meticulously decorated podiums with flowers and leaves. As a central subject of the artwork, “podium flowers” contain multiple meanings: they can be a celebration, a condolence, a decorative element and a tool of mass expression. Whether viewed from the front, left, right, above or below, the symbol remains the same: still just flowers. Words, narratives, and documents might seem useful, but it is the aestheticized layer of performative ritual that gradually obscures them.