Art must have content, yet the content is not always pictorial. The ideal of color, of visual form, of composition, must be expressed in art through non-pictorial means. Only then does the artist begin to observe the particular, the psychological object, and discover its meaning, its implications, its unformed shape. All of these things must be expressed psychologically, as a kind of personal memory.

I arrived in Vietnam a weary traveller, but found immediate hospitality among the artists of Hanoi. Meeting many around the Bia Hoi and cafes of the city. To me it was an impression of life in Paris in the 20s, there were friendships, laughter, feuds and fights all in the space of one glorious, hazy Hanoi afternoon.

The autumn season of one’s life brings a heightened intensity to the preciousness of each and every moment. Every breath, every feeling, is punctuated and swollen with the pregnancy of memory. Individual recollections rise and fall, riding the tidal patterns of time’s ephemeral passing. But memory as form remains omnipresent, attuning the senses to what is before one, to the mysteries and holy contradictions which characterize this life.

Viet’s works depict the lavish and hallow state of both urban and rural contemporary life. Utilizing forms ranging from highly visceral dismembered bodies to abstract brush strokes Viet creates emotive and fragmentary compositions reflecting the breaking down of society, the disorientation of the people and general moral decay.

Memory and nostalgia are infused with essences of the political creating an intoxicating elixir which French born artist, Kristine McCarroll, deftly manipulates throughout her cumulative series ‘The Good Ole Times in the Colonies’. Arriving for the first time in Viet Nam in 1995, in order to examine her country’s historical presence, the artist was extremely moved by the beauty of the landscape and the people.

Every silk painting in “Emotion” is accompanied by a bronze statue, both of which were inspired by Chinh Le’s initial plaster works. The statues seemingly profess the physical nature of life while the silk paintings lead one into the spiritual realm, illustrating the interconnectedness between the two.

Hanoi … a city of nights of magic … cyclos dreamily encircling Hoan Kiem Lake, gas lights flickering, glowing in the darkness, the stillness of the night softened by gently falling rain. A city of romance, love and sadness, steeped in rich tradition.

One a stranger in his homeland, one a stranger in a land of strangers, Nguyen Cam and Suzanne Lecht are celebrating 20 years of art and life in Vietnam, each possessing a rich memory full of longing for a life lost and a well of happiness for a life regained.

This new body of works, while utilizing more multi-faceted geometric forms overlaid with beguiling and mesmerizing pattern, remain classic Tham Poong style metamorphosed into a multifaceted realm of golden mysticism, spirit and movement.