The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre is delighted to present Ly Hoàng Ly’s first solo exhibition and most comprehensive presentation her work to date, as part of her on-going project ‘0395A.ĐC’. This multimedia, collaged body of work will showcase the artist’s ongoing inquiry into the epic story and continuous struggle of human (im)migration, whilst highlighting the contested nature of the memorization, documentation and circulation of history. Examining ideas of (dis)placement and rootlessness, and thus in turn illustrating the fluctuating nature of history and identity, the works take us on a journey of the real and the imagined, the remembered and the forgotten, the known and the un-learnt. Particular visuals (images of a boat, a house or water) are repeated throughout this passage, suggesting the recurrence of a haunting past and its continuous daily recall. While others (certain words and sentences) are left in places sometimes hidden from the eyes, speculating on the mind’s ability to choose what to retain, reminding the remembrance of things as often based on blurred memory of former times.
Drawing on fragments of Vietnam’s past tales of exodus and her own experience as a modern-day migrant, Ly Hoàng Ly’s collaged body of work – including text, sculpture, painting, installation and architecture – puts in conversation the personal with the collective, the opaque with the transparent, thus turning a story of one into a story of (many) ones.
‘0395A.ĐC’ will include the unveiling of Ly Hoàng Ly’s first public art work, an ambitious large-scale structure of steel, that will be given a permanent home in a public space in Vietnam following this exhibition.
The exhibition is supported by the Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Association.
