For Thao Nguyen Phuong, Fiber is not just an exhibition, but a thank you to the fiber material, her youth, those who have accompanied her and those who have been skeptical. After nearly 10 years of quietly pursuing a nearly unmentioned sport in Vietnam, the female artist introduced to the public a world that she called "a place where the breath is".
The exhibition "Fiber" takes viewers through 4 spaces, corresponding to the stages of maturity in her creative journey.
The opening is Dang Dung, a place to display unfinished works, puppetry, and deviations. Instead of hiding it, Thao chose to expose mistakes as part of her journey because for her, beauty is sometimes in an incomplete place.
Next is Inheritance, a space that marks the learning and practice process. Here, she "redraw" famous works made of threads - not to copy, but to dialogue with the seniors, to try to feel an old language through new materials.
Entering Falling Out, viewers began to clearly see her own voice stronger, more instinctive. The layers of fiber overlap to create the feeling of emotional slices being interwoven, interwoven between the boundary of reality and memory.
Finally, Start-up, where Thao displays the most complete works the crystallization of 2 and a half years of tireless work. This is a space of declaration: A new beginning - where she looks back on her entire journey and proudly declares that she has chosen the right path.
In the world of painting, perhaps people are too familiar with swings, brilliant colors or sparkling lacquer paint. But for Thao Nguyen Phuong, she chose another direction - drawing with... threads.
Fiber art - the art of fiber appeared in the 1950s in Europe and the US, when artists began to turn fiber into expressing materials, instead of just using it for weaving. In the 1960s and 70s, this movement spread with the wave of feminism, as a way to affirm: what was once considered a "female industrialist" could also be transformed into art.
If embroidery used to be a symbol of closeness, fiber art today is a declaration of creative freedom, the female artist shared.
For nearly 10 years, Thao Nguyen Phuong has been self-taught, self-ried, made mistakes and corrected mistakes to find her own language. Without a fixed drawing, she started with emotions - to direct the fiber, to let each layer of fiber blend into shape, color, and breath.
She calls this technique fiber layering completely hand-stitching, stacking many layers of fiber on top of each other, creating a thick surface with a certain depth and vibration. Just like the way human emotions accumulate over time, the layers of fiber in her paintings do not stand still but "change color, change feelings" according to the light and the mood of the viewer.
For Thao Nguyen Phuong, the journey with the same fiber has never stopped at the framework of the painting. She believes that fiber art can go further - step out of the exhibition room to be present in life, not only for decoration, but also for interaction.
Fiber, in her imagination, is not only a material for shaping, but an object that knows how to listen. When the person in front changes their mood, when the light moves or when the air changes seasons, the fiber can also "react" - vibrate, change color, reflect the emotions of the person in front.
A day, a thread can only change according to the emotions of the person in front of it? she once wondered. That question has not been answered, but it is the seed for new creativity in the future.
The exhibition "Fiber" starts from now until November 7 at Artera Space (115 Nguyen Thai Hoc, Temple of Literature, Hanoi).
