Bui CongKhanh x Fang Wei-Wen
Hsu Yuan-Ta:
Being the host here satisfies my prying desire for the two artists. They could be categorized in the so-called Southeast Asian cultural system if we view them by such system. In addition, because Vietnam also contains a strong Chinese cultural system, we could later on find out they mainly focus on the relationship between culture and individuals. When we put these two artists together, such image becomes particularly clear. As what we saw yesterday, some of the works seem quite similar.
Fang Wei-Wen:
Why have I been connected with Southeast Asia? First, my ancestors came from little Kinmen; secondly, I was born in a Southeast Asian country called Brunei. So relatively speaking, part of my past has little to do with Taiwan. Although the time I spent in Taiwan has actually exceeded the time in Brunei, a part of my starting points were from Brunei.
After graduating from university, the creative method that I focused more on may was about materials. Basically, you could find out that, I still had a concept of flat, facing a hanging wall, or making extension from it. At that time, I was fond of regularity, symmetry, and flying objects, which made use of the lightest materials and turned them into the strongest ones. Therefore, I made objects such as kites, since they’re very efficient flying tools. Such things had made an impact on my plastic arts practices. I was exploring a certain sculptural concept of moving and expanding.
Like in Dream Vessel (1999), I used the domestic angle steel. It’s an industrial product, and I could make expansion on the dimension at any time according to the size of the space. The inner tube of a motorcycle is also a kind of variable sculptures. There’s normally a limit to pumping the inner tube of a motorcycle, but in the process, I could continue to pump to the amount I want and to even hit the limit or not. There could be many expressions, such as swollen or loose ones. If you ask me why I did so, I just liked the fullness in the inner tube and the kind of chubby look. I was imaging something mobile, without any fixed form, and capable of being all stowed but being expanded and added differently as well according to the space.
I usually say that they’re to be or not to be. They may look like texts, but still are a pile of materials. They’re flexible with good textures and lines. I just hung them directly as they’re soft. You could view them as texts. It’s inspired by the elements of comics, transforming the invisible into visible. There’s no sound in the comics until they’re made into theatre or animated version. Originally, the comics just try to visualize the invisible such as bumping, explosion. Since I grew up as the comic generation, I’d more or less apply to such methods in the visual art creation.
Hsu:
Let me talk a bit more about Fan's work. We see that he’d pick up and filter the objects which are very daily. The certain part of him that we see, in fact represents our collective memories and culture. This is why we usually feel a sense of life in his works. Because we are Taiwanese and these are our visual experiences. You’d find a lot of connections, since the works recall the memories. Interestingly, he’d normally describe the creative process as a fat guy sitting on the ground. The guy is not the kind of realistic and technical ''I'' then, but an "I" stacked by objects and symbols, which is a different way of looking, but through the same expression.
Bui Cong Khanh:
Everyone knows that Vietnam is still a socialism country. The systematic approach in art schools is still the same as in past Soviet Union. I first majored in painting. Until now, there’s actually no contemporary art department instead of painting departments in Vietnam. I think there’s a disadvantage for me because back then, the Internet was not so developed. When I graduated, I thought the most famous and popular art was probably related to Picasso. In our education system, there’s no way to express the meaning of individuals instead of collective and group will. Therefore, after graduation, I really wanted to make a series of personal works. At that time, I had a chance to approach some not-so-formal methods brought back to Vietnam from abroad. I’d painted for eight years, and when I learned enough about the techniques, I then I gave up everything, turning to other materials and media.
My topic for today’s talk focuses on the artist and the creative focus. The first part is the about issue between the artist and the society. Some social issues in Vietnam couldn’t be formally spoken out, but for me, I could still show my works to the public. It doesn’t limit my creativity.
These vases were produced near Hanoi. At that time, there were many slogans on the streets of Vietnam. This is a slogan I came up with, Flowers Are Not Blooming Here (2007). The newspaper would then release and discuss about the issue of Vietnamese women marrying to Taiwan. In my memory, I thought Taiwan's a terrible and terrifying country, as if women were cheap. You could see that the vase is very large and it’s in Chinese style. Unlike some ordinary paintings that would contain several sacred things, I deliberately painted this woman because I believe that when such alienation being recorded in history, it couldn’t be removed. This vase is about 1.7 meter high, so I had to draw the details very carefully. I depicted a dump. The image on this vase is very special, where I wrote "checked", implying that it’d passed the censorship. So far, all exhibitions in Vietnam have to be censored to be made public. For artists, the most horrible thing is that you seem to have to find something to be checked, which is very sensitive.
There’s another work related to Vietnamese society (The Past Moved, 2010), focusing on one of the problems in the development of Vietnam. At that time, I didn’t have too much money, so I lived in a relatively poor area. Since there were many robbers or unfriendly people, people wouldn’t dare to get close at night. However, it’s near the city center, so later on, some investors would like to buy the area and build a tall building. Those who lived there did not receive enough compensation to buy the new apartments; therefore, they refused to accept the compensation. But the government would always have some ways to force them to move. I’d lived there with them and I’d like to do some for them. Thus, I painted the neighborhood where they’d lived, and then invited them to take a picture together.
The second issue relates to the dispute over the sovereignty of the Spratly Islands. One of China's trade routes at sea is to go to Europe through Vietnam and some Southeast Asian countries. One of the products I especially care about is porcelain. There was a period in the Ming Dynasty where ceramics was forbidden. The producers then moved to northern Vietnam, and there’s a village specializing in producing such products. Although the vase is made in Vietnam, the patterns on it are all Chinese style. Some Chinese businessmen would come to Vietnam to order and sell them to other countries. However, if you look closely, you’d find the clay they use is different from China. These are my own works. I’d exhibit two vases at the same time; one is normal, and the other one would be soaked into sea water for a year or so. Once, a lady in Hong Kong asked me whether I picked the vase from the sea and then made a copy of it. I’d also encounter such problem while passing the customs. It’s an issue about real and fake. In fact, all countries would do the same thing, fabricating a piece of history about themselves.
The last issue is about religion, military and power. I once held an exhibition in Myanmar. I came there one month before the exhibition, studying the history and culture. I found out that two of the strongest influential powers are Buddhism and military. I then collected and cut the monks’ robes from the temple. I learned how to sew clothes, and then I made them into military uniforms (Prayers on the Wind, 2015).
In addition, there’s another personal issue. After I returned back to Hoi An, I started to pay attention to my own origins and my family's stories. When I came back home at the age of twenty, I saw a statue of Guan Gong in my house, so I asked my father if we were Chinese. It turned out that my grandfather was actually from Fujian. I was a little surprised because I didn't like China, and since then, I’ve kept asking myself what I should do. I also asked my father why he didn’t tell me earlier. He said that in our society, Chinese is a very sensitive issue. Therefore, I started to study more about the history of Hoi An. Most Chinese in the city came from Ming Dynasty, and have kept the living habits and customs.
Fang:
I think what interests me is how he chose his identity. For me, it’s been a big problem issue. I’m from Kinmen, but I’ve never been there. I have nothing to do with Brunei. Although my nationality is Taiwan, there’s a large blank between us. The searching and the confirmation of identity used to confuse me a lot, and have been something to look for.
Therefore, when it comes to the independence of Taiwan, there’s issue related to pure blood. Who is Taiwanese? What about the indigenous people? The reason why we have to acclaim the legitimacy of blood is because otherwise, it’d be difficult to distinguish the isolation between our culture and the Mainland China? What is the so-called subjectivity? How should we form such thing? Of course, this is not just about a country, but an issue that would constantly being discussed. Because of my background, my grandma used to tell that we’d "return to Tangshan" one day. "Tangshan" is actually an ethereal idea, just a mental image.
There’s also much Malaysian Chinese literature in Taiwan. Some critics in Taiwan have sorted it out and made investigation. The conclusion is that these people write in Mandarin, but they are actually different from writers in Taiwan. There’s an interesting point about Chineseness, that they’ve come up with.T hey still write in Mandarin, but relatively speaking, the entire method they approach came from their customs and the value. My personal feeling is that if you visit Chinatown, you’d see a lot of immigrants keeping the habits from the native place in 1960s and 1970s. They didn’t change with the home country. From a cultural point of view, there are a lot of strange and interesting things.
Bui:
Thank you for sharing. Speaking of my background, when I returned to my hometown, I felt that there was a setback, because since I was young, I’d always thought we’re pure Vietnamese. Then I was confused and didn't like anything related to China. Now I learned that I have a Chinese bloodline in me, it’s painful and difficult for me to accept. I had to face others’ questions. Although it’s a pain, the fact that I could encounter it and made works about it under such sensitivity is still a good direction. I’ve also been to Malaysia and Singapore, where there are issues about the Chinese exclusion as well, but the situation is completely different from Vietnam. Since the 1950s, many Chinese have been doing business in the south. There’s a shopping street where many rich people live. At that time, Vietnam was ruled by France, and the Chinese joined forces with them. Because of the war, Vietnam was then divided into North and South Vietnam. The leaders of the south were afraid of the Chinese, because they’re rich and powerful, so they’ve been looking for ways to reduce the influence of the Chinese.
It might not be as cruel and horrifying as in Malaysia or Singapore, but in Vietnam, they still forced the Chinese change the heart by changing the nationality. Some of them were unwilling to do so, and during the coup in 1975, when the North and the South Vietnam got united, they chose to leave Vietnam. When Vietnam was at war with China in 1979, such issue was highly debated again. It even affected the foods. In Hoi An, there’s a dish that was originally Chinese and was transformed into another thing then. If you ask if the dish was from China, they’d directly say no. It’s so sensitive that even the food refused its own origin. Back to Malaysian Chinese, some of them have to join Islam. It’s not only a political matter but also a religious issue.
