Phan Thao Nguyen
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Looking Down series No. 40
Phan Thao Nguyen
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The Rise
2016
Steel, fabric, chalk, LED lights
80 x 55 x 10 cm
The work “The Rise” is a part of Poetic Amnesia, a research project and body of works created by Thảo Nguyên Phan. The artist creates a sphere of dreams rooted in historical and contemporary contexts of Vietnam, dreams that wander across language, territory, ideology, banality and fantasy The white dove sculpture in the artwork was a public artifact acquired by the artist from the streets of Saigon during a new year celebration, a time when decorative renditions of flowers, vines and birds are installed all over the city to accentuate the crisscrossing atmosphere of festivity, unity and peace. Urban relics of joyfulness could either obscure or activate our memories of a country’s deep scars after long nights of warfare, conquest, dispossession and separation. (Text courtesy of Sàn Art)