Vietnamese artist’s work on display at Chateau La Coste

Popular artist Tia Thuy Nguyen has become the first Vietnamese artist to display artwork at Chateau La Coste, France.

A part of Silver Room installation work. (Photo: thethaovanhoa.vn)
A part of Silver Room installation work. (Photo: thethaovanhoa.vn)

Thuy, who has been a costume designer for various popular movies like Co Ba Sai Gon (The Tailor), Me chong (Mother in Law), Tam Cam: Chuyen chua ke (The Untold Story), Ngay nay ngay nay (The Lost Dragon), has displayed her first ever installation work at Chateau La Coste.

Titled Silver Room, Thuy’s work is a reflection of the common houses of ethnic minority groups in the central highlands region of Vietnam. The work incorporates silver gilding techniques of Vietnamese traditional lacquer art, carving techniques on quartz and jackfruit tree wood.

Thuy has spent nearly three years researching and working on the installation. The room is designed with an open roof, gaps between bars of wood bring light and shadow to the room, which results in non-stop changes according to time and light source during the day.

That’s why, according to Thuy, Silver Room is not an installation work with specific features on location but also has momentous features.

The room measures 16.2m in height, 6m in width, 14.9m in length. It took ten months for experienced workers in the central highlands to find suitable wood and treat it before making the room.

The room's 26 pillars and floor were made from 1,300 cubic metres of wood. The open roof was made from old bamboo measuring 4 to 12m high.

All joints were tightened with string, not nails, following skills of building communal houses by central highland elders.

Tia Thuy Nguyen explains the philosophy of her work at the opening ceremony. (Photo: thethaovanhoa.vn)

The work stresses on the “duyen” (Destiny) notion in Buddhism, which expresses the lifestyle and belief of the artist in a world of equanimity when they confront the conflicts of the past, present and future; the desire and relinquishing; homeland’s identity and integration into the world.

The philosophy has persuaded collector Paddy McKillen to choose the installation for the exhibition, Thuy said.

Thuy was born in 1981 in Hanoi. She now lives in Ho Chi Minh City. After her graduation from Vietnam Fine Arts University in 2006, she received a scholarship to study her MA and PhD at the Kiev Royal Art and Architecture Institute, Ukraine. In 2016, Tia Thuy Nguyen established The Factory contemporary centre in Ho Chi Minh City.

After her Silver Room at Chateau La Coste, Thuy has been invited by various galleries and art centres in France.

She will return to her familiar painting and try some interactive installations using natural light for her solo exhibition next year. She is compiling her own book on sketching practice.