Currently on view on the main gallery floor, ‘Leaf picking in the ancient forest’ is an exhibition that features fragments of Vietnamese modern history, told in the delicate language of thread and fabric. Artist Võ Trân Châu fills The Factory with suspended mosaic paintings, whispering stories of sites and symbols that once stood as witnesses of time and space, as bearers of social life and the impact of foreign influences. Using second-hand clothing as her key material, Châu visualizes well-known architecture that were regrettably destroyed, such as the Saigon Tax Trade Center and Ba Son Shipyard – two among many buildings and people that Châu has intuitively absorbed from her love of Saigon heritage. In a more intimate area the artist presents smaller works amongst stories of the Vietnamese people and their domestic lives, these tales arguably sidelined from the collective memory of Vietnam today, thus giving greater character to its cities and their communities.
In this journey of remembering lost things and retrieving memories, what are the ‘hidden’ tales that the artist seeks to convey? Why has the artist chosen to work with the language of textile, particularly her decision to recycle used clothes? Join the curators of this exhibition to learn more of the ‘behind-the-scenes’ and discover the ways in which contemporary Vietnamese society recall, or perhaps do not recall, particular historical legacies and why their physical remembrance is so important…
