PRESS RELEASE
‘Histoire d’un Voyage: Sand in my ears, adrift of the world’
A solo exhibition by artist, poet and writer Nguyễn Thúy Hằng | 9 June - 23 July
2017
www.factoryartscentre.com
The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre is pleased to present a solo exhibition by
Nguyễn Thúy Hằng, exploring the process of writing and producing books, as a
critical part of her artistic practice.
Displayed in the upper galleries of The Factory, Thúy Hằng takes us on a journey –
from conception to final print – of her book making. Seeing her paintings and
drawings reproduced in print is a particular artistic motivational process for Nguyễn
Thúy Hằng, who views the various printing errors and color corrections as an integral
part of the overall development of her ideas – a process that in many ways is more
important to her than the final outcome. Thúy Hằng shares, ‘In Vietnam, I had the
unique opportunity to witness print production shift from manual rudimentary
techniques to when private bookstores appeared accompanied by advancements in
machinery, paper quality and digital printing technology’. Thus, in this exhibition
Thúy Hằng gives us access to this full process, with three rooms, sharing the three
critical stages of her thinking – conception, articulation and physicality. Featuring
hand written notes, sketches in ink, paintings in oil and the myriad printing proofs
and print blocks necessary in the production of her books, this exhibition shares how
her visual and literary practice entwine in both concept and material.
‘The main themes in my books share the conflicts and complexities of a life between
freedom and dependence; of the revolution of the liberal minded; of thinking about
the position of women and the role of gender in contemporary life’, says Thúy Hằng,
‘The more I write, the more I figure out that I just want to erase the limit of
concepts, such as the mandatory moral categories of society, culture, politics,
religion, race or immigrant issues. I feel I have reached a higher level of living where
I want to encourage everyone that we have a right to choose the life style we fit
into, no matter where we live in the world and what language we speak’.
‘Histoire d’un Voyage: Sand in my ears, adrift of the world’ celebrates the
relationship between text and image making, encouraging awareness that visual
artists today are unique cultural thinkers straddling multiple media and methodology.
Nguyễn Thúy Hằng would like to give special thanks to Kiến Thức and Nhã Nam
publishers for their significant support of her practice and commitment to the world
of fine art publishing.
The opening of this exhibition coincides with the public opening of ‘I, Me, Mine:
Saigon Art Book Edition 7’, also taking place at The Factory Contemporary Arts
Centre on the 9 June, from 6pm.
…….
Notes for the editor:
Nguyễn Thúy Hằng (b. 1978, Ho Chi Minh City) was trained as a painter at the Ho
Chi Minh City Fine Arts University. Graduating in 2002, she soon realized that her
love of words was something intrinsically connected to her visual imagination.
Nguyễn Thúy Hằng’s art often combines various art forms, from large-scale
sculptural installations to collaborations with dance, cinema and music. Her first
trilogy ‘Current Times, Good Sensations and Reasonable Insanity’ (written during a
two year adventure in the USA from 2003 to 2005) was published by Knowledge
Publisher and Young Publisher, Hanoi, in 2006. She has since gone on to produce
more than 5 books with solo exhibitions in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Thúy Hằng
currently lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City.
The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre (‘The Factory’) is the first purpose-built
space for contemporary art in Vietnam, established April 2016. As an independent
private initiative, it creates and hosts interdisciplinary activities in order to introduce
and expand knowledge of contemporary art and cultural trends, both past and
present, in Vietnam. As a social enterprise, The Factory also offers a publicly
accessible reading room of art-educational resource; workshop and co-working
space; replete with café, bar and restaurant. All profit from sale of art and business
on-site
supports
the
running
costs
of
its
Arts
Centre.
http://www.factoryartscentre.com