spAces between men
HOANG DUONG CAM | 黃陽琴
16 MAR - 13 MAY 2017
AFFINITY ART is delighted to present “Spaces Between Men”, the first solo gallery exhibition in Hong Kong by Vietnamese artist Hoang Duong Cam.
Hoang Duong Cam is considered one of the boldest conceptual artist in Vietnam. As part of the first batch of artists who graduated from the Hanoi Fine Arts University in 1996 after the Doi-Moi (open reform policy) he addresses sociopolitical, historical and philosophical themes in his diverse practice including painting, photography, film, installation and sculptures.
“Spaces Between Men” is Hoang’s latest series in which he explores the interaction between people at different moments in history. New perspectives are created from weaving together random historical instances with an underlying context of the 20th century wartime and people migration in modern times in Vietnam.
Referencing old photographs, often taken from Vietnam’s war-stricken history, Hoang isolates the physical space between human figures into a two-dimensional shape, capturing the transient moment of their interaction. Removed from its context and stripped of emotional content, the shape adopts a new role. Hoang experiments rigorously with the angle, position, orientation, size, tone and textures of the shapes before juxtaposing them to achieve an overall composition that he is satisfied with. The shapes are not pure abstractions but are rather derived from real human interactions captured on photographs, transforming “spaces” both physical and in time that the artist wants to highlight and link.
In his creative process, Hoang also reflects on the subjective interpretation that historical events are subjected to, by applying a different treatment for a shape: the same form, meaning the same event, may be interpreted differently depending on perspectives and viewpoints.
As the shapes populate the canvas, a parallel narrative - unconnected to the original photographs – develops naturally from the emerging visual clues. The finished work resembles a multi-layered jigsaw puzzle that elicits in viewers a curiosity to delve deeper into the stories embodied by the visually striking shapes. In some works, the artist remarks on philosophic theories, such as #2 Lake Inside a Cave where Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is likened to the practice of idealization in the art world. In #1 Porous Spring, the work is reminiscent of a landscape, a white waterfall dominates the centre with a fresh stream trickling to its left - the sky, clouds and water are merged seamlessly as inspired by works from Japanese artist Hokusai. Some works make ambiguous allusion to the war, such as the earth-tone rich #5 A stretch of Burnt Grass while it is also a common present-day practice to burn fields between harvests or to observe natural fires break out in the drier season. In #9 The Long and Winding Road, the artist comments on the newly privatised roads, many users find the toll fees too high and prefer to take the longer winding – and toll-free – way, as depicted by the red outline lacing round the canvas and which, interestingly, ends close to where it starts.
In “Spaces Between Men”, the artist attempts to reconciliate those impacted by history with facts pared down to a visual representation of the spatial interaction and thereby offering a catalyst to the “organic healing” process, as he calls it, through his powerful and transformative imagery.
Hoang was born in 1974 in Hanoi and graduated from the Hanoi University of Fine Arts in 1996. He currently lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City. With an extensive body of work spanning two decades, his solo/two-person exhibitions have been held both locally and internationally – including France, Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong. Hoang’s work has been included in group exhibitions in over a dozen countries across Asia, America and Europe. His works are collected by the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan.
AFFINITY ART 榮幸呈獻越南藝術家黃陽琴於香港的首個個展《Spaces Between Men》。
黃陽琴是越南其中一位具代表性的概念藝術家。作為首批在改革開放後於河內美術大學畢業（1996年）的先鋒藝術家，他的作品主張社會政治、歷史及哲學題材，並牽涉各種藝術領域包括繪畫、攝影、錄像、裝置及雕塑。
《Spaces Between Men》是黃探討人類於不同歷史時刻互動的最新系列。藝術家隨機的將歷史片段如二十世紀的戰爭年代及現代越南的人口遷移現象互相交織，從而創造嶄新的角度觀看歷史。
黃透過參考舊照片，特別是拍攝於越南戰爭歷史的照片，把人物之間的空間轉化為平面圖形，以捕捉其短暫的互動關係。圖形在失去自身的境況的內容後，便擁有全新的詮釋意思。黃於不同角度、位置、方向、尺寸、色調及質感研究圖形，將它們並置及整合於畫面上。然而這些圖形並非純粹的抽象表達手法，而是來自現實相片裏人物互動的痕跡，及藝術家對「空間」作為實體和時間性的探討和聯繫。
在黃創作期間，他也在反思自身認知歷史事件的主觀性質，透過把特定的圖形呈現在不同情境，他暗喻著即使是相同的歷史事件，也能被不同角度和看法重新詮釋。
隨著圖案填滿畫布，一個與參考照片無關的新敘述，便透過這些視覺元素自然誕生。完成的作品彷如重叠的拼圖般，勾起觀者的好奇心去嘗試了解圖形取自的照片中的故事，可是卻因圖形轉化之後的新詮釋， 原本的境況已經沒法去追究，意味著一種對歷史創傷的治癒。
黃生於1974年，於1996年畢業於河內美術大學。他於世界各地舉辦個展及二人展，包括法國、新加坡、澳洲及越南多個城市。他的作品曾於多個大型國際聯展展出，橫跨美洲、歐洲及亞洲。