Hanoi (VNA) - A handmade lacquer work from Vietnam will go under the hammer at Christie’s in London today (November 18).

It is the first time that the creativityand workmanship of Vietnamese craftsmen and craftswomen is highlighted by thewell-known international auction house.

Titled Borderline, the exclusive item is acollaborative work between Paris-based Vietnamese actress and designer Tran Nu Yen Khe, and the Vietnamese haute lacquer house Hanoia. While the sketch wasdone by Khe, the craftsmen of Hanoia turned her drawing into a sophisticatedwork of art. 

According to the designer, known more as anactress working closely with her husband, Vietnamese-French director Tran AnhHung, Borderline expresses the line between the past and the present, andbetween tradition and modernity.

Based on the shape of the Vietnamese traditionalconical hat, "non", it has a functional value as a tray, but it is also anexample of traditional culture expressed through contemporary design.

On the conical form runs a brilliantvegetal pattern in perfect harmony with a lacquered background of the drawingof a barbed wire fence inlaid by gold leaf made at Kieu Ky village on theoutskirts of Hanoi.

The designer said that the idea for thedecorative pattern came from the flowery bushes that grow around barbed wirefences, something she saw in many rural places across Vietnam.

The wire is also a symbolic image evoking ahot topic in today’s world – immigration. The bold colours of red and orangenot only evoke the image of Buddhist pagodas, they also present the activenessof contemporary Vietnamese society.

One of artisans joining the project, theHead of Research and Product Development Department at Hanoia, Tham Van Sy,said: “It was challenging, interesting and exciting to work together with sucha famous figure.”

To turn her ideas into technical sketches,Sy had to talk with her everyday via Skype, with the support of her husband asinterpreter, because the designer-actress is not completely fluent in spokenVietnamese.

Apart from the sophisticated makingprocess, the one-off piece, which took three months to complete, also requiredother important techniques, of which was the conjunction between the upper andlower parts.

“The story behind is always much morecomplicated than whatever you see. It’s not easy to join two separate parts –an up-side-down conical-shaped piece with a round pedestal – without affectingits original structure while still maintaining the balance. We had to devote alot of our mind and time for just this one step,” he said.

Together with 15 other handcraft items fromChina, Japan and India, Borderline will be go under hammer at the startingprice of 2,000 pounds. This auction will be live and clients can bid online at//bit.ly/2hC9L6h

Hanoia CEO Nguyen Thị Tuyet Thanh saidproceeds from the auction of Borderline will be used to launch a contest foryoung Vietnamese designers.

She also said after this collaborative workwith Yen Khe, Hanoia will continue to work with other famous Vietnamese andinternational artists to create other exclusive, unique designs.

“Although Vietnamese handcraft products areabundant, they are not competitive because they don’t have attractive designs,”she said.

Yen Khe was only one year old when herfamily left Vietnam in 1974 and migrated to France. She grew up in Paris.After her high school graduation, she spent one year at the “Ecole du Louvre”,followed by a degree in design and interior architecture at the Camondo schoolin Paris. She also took dramatic art classes. Filmmaker Tran Anh Hung, who waslooking for an actress for his short film graduates, found her in this class.After starring in Hung’s first film, she has worked with him on all hisprojects.

She is best known for her roles in herhusband’s trilogy: Cyclo (1995), The Scent of Green Papaya (1993), and TheVertical Ray of Sun (2000). Hung’s latest movie Eternity (2016), which starsAudrey Tautou, also features Khe’s voice as narrator. As Hung’s partner andclosest collaborator, Khe is also in charge of costume and set designs of allhis films.-VNA