People who visited the L'Espace cultural centre in downtown Hanoirecently may have witnessed a peculiar sight, a herd of seven horsesmade of paper mache that appear to be grazing peacefully in a field.
Thehorses arrived at L'Espace, 24 Trang Tien street, as part of artistTrieu Tuan Long's first installation: Information Transmitted by HorseRiding.
Photos pasted onto the horse figures depict therelationship between French and Vietnamese culture. The exhibition willrun until October 26.
"The art works well with the fact that thisis the year of horse," Long said. "But I was inspired by people makingpaper horses in Phuc Am village on the western outskirts of Hanoi."
Longspent about a year crafting the statues, he said. They are similar, butdiffer in size and decoration. To make them, he first fashioned askeleton out of bamboo, and then covered it in layers upon layers ofpaper – like the traditional process for making paper masks.
Thousandsof photos gathered by Long and his friends were then pasted to theoutermost layer of paper. The largest horse weighs about 30 kilogramsand is made from 300 layers of paper.
Each horse's photo reflectsa particular theme or place, such as Ta Hien old street; Frenchcolonial buildings; French performances in Hanoi; examples of Frencharchitecture, such as the Opera House, the Cathedral and Hang Dau PostOffice; French and Vietnamese children; and cultural exchanges betweenFrance and Vietnam.
"I wanted to express the long termrelationship between the French and Vietnamese people in a more friendlyand casual way," Long said. "It's the way that ordinary people talk toone another, not the way of diplomats."
Long said he wantedvisitors to think about the messages the animals conveyed, instead oflearning by sitting in front of a television or computer.
"Althoughthe photos were printed in a random way, I find the most interestingpictures under the horses' bellies and legs," said student Vu ThuPhuong.
She bent lower and lower to see the pictures fartherdown the horse. "The photos tell me a vivid story about French people'sfeelings toward Vietnamese people and vice versa."-VNA
Thehorses arrived at L'Espace, 24 Trang Tien street, as part of artistTrieu Tuan Long's first installation: Information Transmitted by HorseRiding.
Photos pasted onto the horse figures depict therelationship between French and Vietnamese culture. The exhibition willrun until October 26.
"The art works well with the fact that thisis the year of horse," Long said. "But I was inspired by people makingpaper horses in Phuc Am village on the western outskirts of Hanoi."
Longspent about a year crafting the statues, he said. They are similar, butdiffer in size and decoration. To make them, he first fashioned askeleton out of bamboo, and then covered it in layers upon layers ofpaper – like the traditional process for making paper masks.
Thousandsof photos gathered by Long and his friends were then pasted to theoutermost layer of paper. The largest horse weighs about 30 kilogramsand is made from 300 layers of paper.
Each horse's photo reflectsa particular theme or place, such as Ta Hien old street; Frenchcolonial buildings; French performances in Hanoi; examples of Frencharchitecture, such as the Opera House, the Cathedral and Hang Dau PostOffice; French and Vietnamese children; and cultural exchanges betweenFrance and Vietnam.
"I wanted to express the long termrelationship between the French and Vietnamese people in a more friendlyand casual way," Long said. "It's the way that ordinary people talk toone another, not the way of diplomats."
Long said he wantedvisitors to think about the messages the animals conveyed, instead oflearning by sitting in front of a television or computer.
"Althoughthe photos were printed in a random way, I find the most interestingpictures under the horses' bellies and legs," said student Vu ThuPhuong.
She bent lower and lower to see the pictures fartherdown the horse. "The photos tell me a vivid story about French people'sfeelings toward Vietnamese people and vice versa."-VNA
