Lyricist Print

Seated high in the rainforest canopy a macaque seems lost in thought. The scene is after midnight, the sky a deep violet, and the presence of the moon felt through the bright textured tree branches and twisted creepers, vines and lianas. The monkey is the ninth sign of the East Asian zodiac and believed to have powers to engage the gods to heal, to ensure good harvests, and to promote fertility. For me, the work is autobiographical. When I first moved from Japan to Hanoi, Vietnam in the 1990s the city was still relatively small and quiet, with nature reaching to the centre. By the early 2000s infrastructure projects and high-rise buildings heralded the accelerating path to modernity and the pushing back of Nature. Looking up the sky above the bright city lights in busy Hanoi, I imagined myself listening to sounds of insects, croaking frogs and nocturnal animals in the deep forest which had become so far away. Then I saw myself as the monkey lost in thought at the top of a beautiful tree in a forest filled with suffocatingly hot air. To give prominence to the tree, I has used many inlay techniques to achieve the richest tree bark rich texture, and a broad palette of coloured laquers. many layers of coloured lacquer have been applied to fill the gap between the shells. The fur of the monkey is wood powder adhered and covered with raw lacquer - a signature technique of me. (ABOUT MY MATERIAL AND TECHNIQUES) Son Ta, Vietnamese natural lacquer, is an organic material purified and processed from sap of Rhus Saccedanea tree. In my son ta painting, art is created by building layers of lacquer with different colors and textures, and other materials (such as gold, silver, eggshells, and mother of pearl). Underlaying layers are then sanded back to the surface. Son ta has a high transparency compared to other natural lacquers. High transparency enables lacquer to have more vivid colours when mixed with colour pigments. The transparency of the material can also be used to create a variety of expressions. What fascinates me most is the fact that son ta "ages" with time. Natural lacquer hardens by a chemical reaction rather than dries. Enzymes within the lacquer catch oxygen from H2O in the atmosphere and polymerize. This reaction happens in son ta over a much longer time span compared to lacquer from other countries. This makes son ta much softer at the beginning, but turns it harder and tougher with time. Its transparency also increases, making the finished work brighter and more colourful with time. Son ta painting is an art form that ages like fine quality wine. The longer the time, the better in quality and flavore, until the chemical effect is fully complete