The public sculpture Honey Honey Honey or The Fragments of Trust forms part of Ly Hoang Ly’s multimedia project of the same name that began in 2015. The project marks Ly’s research on the structure and mechanism of contemporary society, exploring societal expectations and measurements of sincerity and pretense, success and failure, illusion and disappointment. Reflecting on the idea of trust, the project also asks how one can believe in what they know, what they are told and what they are shown.
In Vietnamese, the word for honey, “mật”, bears three different meanings: “mật” (in “mật ong”, or honey) implies sweetness; “mật” (or bile) refers to bitterness, and “mật” (in “tối mật” or “bí mật) means top secret or confidential. By combining these disparate linguistic meanings, breaking them into pieces then using the fragments – conceptually and structurally – to sculpt an artwork for the public, Ly hopes to create a visual world that relates to the society we currently live in, in all its chaos and order, glory and troubles.
This project was realized in collaboration with chemist Dr Dao Thanh Hai, Princeton University. The public sculpture was produced in collaboration with architect Ho Dinh Chieu, The Five & Partners Company.
(Edited from text excerpts provided by the artist)
The work is on permanent display at EMASI Nam Long, HCMC, Vietnam.