Transformation and Transmutation
Art Vietnam Gallery is honored to be presenting the new works of Dinh Thi Tham Poong, our celebrated artist whom we have had the privilege of working with for the last 15 years.
Acclaimed internationally for her unique creations celebrating the life of ethnic minorities entwined with nature, her work has matured and taken on a deeper symbology—utilizing a surrealistic response to the mysticism of mankind’s connection to the universe.
The palette is richer, with soft warm tones and earthy natural pigments that seem to emerge from the depths of the Red River’s rich alluvial soil, highlighted with extensive use of gold leaf and vivid geometric patterning.
Though the images may appear typical of earlier works—human shapes depicted as in real life—these figures now morph into elliptical forms, spheres, squares, rectangles, and triangles. This design pattern is typical of the Thai minority, representing the three existences—all in a dreamy movement implying a transition or transmutation from the human sphere into the spiritual realm.
The extensive use of gold leaf in the new works is a tribute to nature and highlights the transformation of these figures as they transition from the human world to a celestial state of being. Just as the Renaissance painters discovered the golden rectangle pleasing to the eye, the gold leaf simulates the light that elucidates the world, provoking the evolution of humanity as it pierces the darkness into a heightened awareness of being.
Tham Poong’s work could be considered aligned—materially and spiritually—with the trailblazing female artists Hilma af Klint (1862–1955) from Sweden and Frida Kahlo (1907–1954) from Mexico. All three of these inventive artists are inspired by spiritualism, modern science, and the riches of the natural world. They share a use of nature combined with basic shapes, depicting the evolution of man intertwined with nature, mixing realism with fantasy—a kind of magical realism.
In Freedom and Dignity (2022), we see an elliptical strip encircling the two human forms—one with cloud patterning suggesting spirit, while the other dark, earthy form with grid-like patterning grounds us to the earth. The continuum of a Möbius strip encircling the heads pulses with the rhythmical nature of life depicted in simple geometric block forms, unadorned.
Tham Poong’s mother is ethnic Thai and is an arts researcher of dance and music, a talented musician who always encouraged her daughter to dance. The Thai people dance as a ritual for all events in life: to start a new crop, celebrate the harvest, life, birth, death, and all manner of activities. The movements of dance are not just for beauty but—as in Dancing with the Fans (2022) and Joy from the Rhythm (2022)—they embody a much deeper significance, as a ceremony to honor nature, the seasons, and human life. They have songs for death in which conversations with the deceased are told, reenacting untold stories and revealing all secrets of the past—releasing the spirit to be free, reuniting with human and nature in a pure form.
Dancing with Fans and Geometric Flowers (2022), Tea and The Style of That Girl (2022), The Movements Are from Both of Us (2022), and the triptych Joy from the Rhythm (2022) all exalt the power of dance and song, the delicate balance of human with nature.
The artist’s Time is the King (2022) series is evocative of earlier works from her Natural Instinct exhibition (2006) in form, but the meaning has evolved and taken on deeper significance. A king and a prisoner are the same—both are enclosed in a kind of framed structure, some with simple borders, others splendid, and yet both are contained, restricted to a boundary or lifestyle that must be followed. If they can manage to break through these chains of stricture or illusion, they become angels.
Zen I and Zen II (2022), The Space and Us (2022), and Side by Side (2022) present an ideal existence to aspire to—where one is set free from these boundaries, transforming to the spirit world, intertwined with nature, as if birds in flight in boundless eternity.
Tham Poong’s works are always uniting human with nature, expressing the interconnectedness of all. In The Geometric Lotus 01 and 02 (2022), The Light and the Plant (2022), and the charming The Leaves and Branches Are Listening to Our Words (2022), the artist reminds us once again how precious are our tenuous bonds with Mother Earth—and how we must protect and honor this symbiosis.
This new body of work, while utilizing more multi-faceted geometric forms overlaid with beguiling and mesmerizing patterns, remains classic Tham Poong—transformed into a multifaceted realm of golden mysticism, spirit, and movement.
Art Vietnam Gallery and Australian filmmaker Kim Beamish of Non Đ-̛Script are currently in the process of making a film about the artist’s life, exploring her childhood and family life, sharing the passing on of ancestral stories, her use of Vietnamese traditional handmade Dó paper, and her explorations in nature and the markets in Lai Châu from which she draws inspiration. Being of both White Thai and Mường ancestry, Tham Poong’s work not only highlights that of a Vietnamese female artist, but also of an ethnic minority artist who has challenged accepted norms and received international acclaim in doing so.
We will be showing one-minute clips from the filming, and we hope that you will join us in supporting our efforts in the making of this 20-minute documentary. We plan to screen it internationally to further expose and promote the work of Tham Poong and the contemporary art of Vietnam.
Suzanne Lecht
Art Director
Art Vietnam Gallery
