The work of a young Vietnamese artist can be tough. Burdened by a rich cultural history, the artist has to tackle cliches, create work appropriate to their background, and somehow come out as original. This is a line that the young artist Xuan Lam walks effortlessly.
Xuan Lam’s latest exhibition “Rendezvous between the Old and the New”, is a fantastic example of this. To find out why, you wouldn’t have to look further than the name of the exhibit.
The exhibition looks at traditional art through the eyes of modernity, always applying his own unique touch. It’s a continuation of his previous work, “Folk Painting – the Remake”, displayed three years ago, when he was just 24 years old.
Xuan Lam has an energetic, youthful pace as he walks from painting to painting. “The idea came to me from a visit to Fine Arts Museum to collect materials for graduation thesis,” Xuan Lam explains. “Neglected folklore paintings have always carried a certain appeal for me”.
This focus on tradition can be rare a find in young Vietnamese artists. Xuan Lam explains that, “I was born in the 90s, I grew up listening to foreign music, reading comic books, with a broad awareness of other cultures, but I still feel attached to folklore paintings. I want to show what traditional art means to young people like me.”
The responsibility of tradition
Sitting in the exhibition are two striking stone statues. Actually, they’re cut from Formex, created with the help of two friends, but the impact is the same.
This concept derived from a similar exhibition undertaken for Le Loi school in Hanoi’s Old Quarter. Seeing that the walls were not made from the right material, Xuan Lam decided to create a three-dimensional piece of art from Formex.
The students loved it, and the encouragement helped him to continue to develop in a difficult medium. “It took about one week to create reliefs for each work,” Xuan Lam explained. “Construction of the exhibition took three months. The whole journey took three years.”
Xuan Lam went on to explain the working on Formex is an error-prone medium compared to printing, reinforcing, and cutting. As a self-titled ‘responsible creator’, he always ensures his work is of the highest quality before exhibiting it.
“I want to show what traditional art means to young people like me.”
This attention to detail can be found in every piece of Xuan Lam’s work. While he does use modern graphic techniques, he still applies each stroke to his paintings by hand before scanning them and digitally editing them.
He explains that, “Folklore painting is a popular culture passed down from generation to generation, but I have the opportunity to experiment in my own way”.
Though the Women’s Museum hardly seems big enough to contain Xuan Lam’s enthusiasm, he remains tight-lipped about upcoming projects. What is certain, however, is whatever these projects are, they’re sure to breathe new life into this tradition, bringing it to new audiences.
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