San Art and Manzi Art Space have co-organised artist Vo Tran Chau’s first solo exhibition, Lingering at the Peculiar Pavilion, which opens on Saturday at 6.30pm.

Chau will showcase her works at her first solo exhibition Lingering at the Peculiar Pavilion), which will be opened on Saturday at Manzi Art Space. 

Since the six-month long residency at San Art Laboratory in mid-2015, Chau has been tracing the descendants of the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945) to create thủy ảnh (water-image). 

This work remakes long cổn, the emperor’s ritual garment, by sowing together patches of the descendants’ clothing.

Continuing this research, linking the past historical context with the present, Chau develops a body of work consisting of embroidered paintings, fabric sculptures, and a unique form of mosaic tapestry/painting not often seen in Viet Nam. 

This solo exhibition creates an illusory space between forgetting and remembering, between current affairs and autobiographical elements, to create discourse on the psychology of our very era that seems to embody a recurrent uneasiness, looping between the past and future.

The Nguyen court was erected in Hue. Geographically speaking, the city lies in the central of the country. 

In the exhibition, Chau guides viewers on an imaginary excursion to an alternative Hue City, where selective symbols earn new narratives.

The free entry exhibition will open until April 3 at Manzi Art Space, 14 Phan Huy Ich Street. A talk by the artist and researcher Tran Quang Duc will take place on Sunday at 7.30pm. 

VNS