The Second Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art exhibition catalogue (APT2)

vu oanran Lives and works in Hanoi, Vietnam Detail, Monsters, devils and angels 1996 Installation of wall assemblages comprising recycled cardboard with ink, gouache, synthetic polymer paint Collection:The artist VO Dan Tan says that in his previous life he was a shoemaker. He was happy with his profession and doing well. On Saturday evenings he got drunk and played the flute for the crazy dance of insects and animals, devils and angels. In VO Dan Tan's present life, the Hofmaniada of his imagination turned into reality. Reincarnated as an artist this time, he creates mystery in his paintings and objects. The artist began to see art in the common things of everyday domestic use: pieces of bamboo, wicker baskets, fans for winnowing rice or simply the bark of tropical trees. By turning them into paintings– masks of lions and tigers, goddesses and self– portraits of the artist as Buddha, as a musician or a drunk monk-he added a new perspective to what has traditionally been considered art in Vietnam. When his ideas were copied, trivialised and finally turned into folk art souvenirs by shop sellers all over Hanoi, VO Dan Tan stopped and turned his attention to different, less folkloric, though equally mundane objects. In the spirit of the merry shoemaker, he searched and found new inspiration from paper offerings. The Buddhist paper offerings, as colourful and diverse as they are in the form of dresses, hats, shoes and many other things, carried the stigma of death and sadness. He finally 106 I ART I s T s : sou TH AN o sou TH - EA s T A s I A discovered worldly offerings in paper objects like boxes, cartons and commercial wrappings, that he turned into masks and creatures of his own. His most recent series of three-dimensional pieces, cut from cigarette packages, include mythical lion– dogs and phoenixes, smiling clowns, women angels and terrifying monsters. They are gold, transparent and illusional, the kind of beings the artist believes to be real. The art works are toys, totems and icons at the same time. VO Dan Tan's installations stand out aesthetically from the mainstream of Vietnamese art. Too childish to be serious, too ironic to be romantic, they are flashes of the hidden memory of the shoemaker's joy, for whom living, working and playing were much the same thing.The artist inherited this cheerful philosophy. He creates playful images and objects, such as cigarette boxes, Venus-Christ and a bottle with angel's wings filled with a wine which he calls 'Ave Maria'. He dedicated his assemblages and installations to those who, like the shoemaker, mixed life, work and play-to Mozart and Santo Sharlo (Charlie Chaplin). The mixture of real and mythical names, images and actual personalities from different times and countries does not confuse the artist. Far from a linear perception of history and the world, of time and distance, he attempts to transcend these restrictions by situating himself beyond the borders that threaten to bind him to a definite location or address. VO Dan Tan's explorations and discoveries are not those of a scholar, but are naive and at the same time the profound and sharp observations of fools and jesters. Perhaps this is why he now signs his most recent works with the pen-name Amadeus Fou Jean-Tan, 'l'homme sans pays', the man without an address. In his future life VO Dan Tan wants to be a traveller. He prepares numerous suitcases-the primitive wood and glass boxes used for selling cigarettes on Hanoi streets. These he fills with masks of grinning monsters, singing dogs, with Sanchos and Don Quixotes, Harlequins and Venuses. To him, these masks are the most precious possessions for a pilgrim to carry in his suitcase, for 'l'homme sans pays'. Natalia Kraevskaia,ArtCritic,Hanoi, Vietnam