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

The eldest son of a poor farmer, Mai Anh Dung did not follow his father's hard career of farming but studied graphic art at the Decorative Arts School in Bien Hoa, then attended the Fine Arts University, Ho Chi Minh City. Like other young Vietnamese artists, Mai Anh Dung encountered difficulties after he graduated. The artist's studio is a simple, narrow room situated in a poor labour area. The everyday heat from the low sheeting roof, which is without a ceiling, spreads downwards. Mai Anh Dung and his oil paintings, which hang from the roof, seem to be dried for a long time. Mai Anh Dung's works are usually large and depict a lost life. They look back with regret to the past of a nation which had a grand civilisation, extraordinary and first-class in South-East Asia, the vestiges of which haven't faded despite hundreds of years in ruins. This civilisation is known as the Cham Nation. Che Lan Vien, a famous Vietnamese poet, wrote many immortal poems about the Cham Nation, his intense feelings for the ruins of a majestic and everlasting era of unique artistic masterpieces, and about the talent and romanticism of the Cham Nation. Mai Anh Dung is also bewitched by the absolute beauty of the legendary statues from the mysteriously burnt brick temples in shadow on hills or hidden in distant forests or along the mandarin route in Central Vietnam. Mai Anh Dung came to that country to continue a revelation of art or to find a path to the source of the beauty. Mai Anh Dung has come to the Cham civilisation and life as a lover, and with his offering heart, this 29 year-old artist has painted a Ramu'aon that is grandiose as well as sombre, realistic as well as surrealistic. It is a global combination of life and death transformed into the dance of the goddess Siva. According to Cham rituals, Ramu'aon is a day of celebration in memory of the dead. The success of this large-sized painting doesn't depend on imbuing the viewer with a sense of the artist's new technique, nor does it depend on wonder at an extra skilful drawing hand or a sorcerer of colours. Without meaning that his oil colour technique on canvas shows a lack of experience, Mai Anh Dung's art displays naivety in composition, simplicity in plastic arts and poorness in colours, but all of these things combine to bring a brilliant effect to Ramu'aon, attracting all gazes. The only light of civilisation that can illuminate all the sources of the formation and existence of beauty is a unique one-the light of the artist's soul. Mai Anh Dung has based on it to depart ... Trinh Cung, Artist and Critic, Ho Chi Minh City,Vietnam Top The night of the high plateau 1995 Oil on canvas with engraved wooden frame 135x200cm Collection: The artist Bottom 'Ramu'aon' festival 1995 Oil on canvas with engraved wooden frame 170x300cm Collection: The artist ART I s T s: s O u TH AND s O u T H- EA s T A s I A I 89