» The State of Absence… Euphoria in Passing #1

Born in Gia Lai Province in the Central Highlands, a place that is always caught in the middle of a power struggle between humans and nature, the artist had to witness countless tragedies that accentuate the reality of human fragilities. As a result, during every homecoming trip, Tung always attempts to collect everything within his grasp, from natural mementos such as cicada shells, termite mounds, boulders, and tree stumps, to man-made memorabilia such as silkworm cocoonage, buffalo hide, discarded water pipes, and cheap industrial wood. It is almost as if he was persistently racing against time and its natural decomposition, to salvage whatever fragment is left of his childhood land.

The work The state of absence… Euphoria in passing #1 (2023 – ongoing) stems from the image of a silkworm cocoonage, which in turn symbolizes the silk industry – one of the many governmental projects to alleviate poverty in Central Highlands. Made from industrial wood, the cocoonage is shaped like a chessboard; each of its squares used to house a single silkworm cocoon. When Tung repurposed these abandoned cocoonages, he randomly placed within the squares a pebble that he collected from the jungle or the river. The ivory, ochre-washed hues of the scattered pebbles weave luminous constellations across the time-mottled, earthy brown canvas of the cocoonage, as they allude to the memories about the not-yet-hatched silkworms. Ironically, their untimely death serves to feed the silkworm farmers’ unending desire to escape poverty and transform their lives. The silkworms’ absence is a silent testimony to nature in the land that constantly bears the brunt for the wishes of mankind.

(Edited from text excerpts provided by San Art)