Installation view of In Absence, Presence. Image courtesy of Nguyen Art Foundation.
“Out of Hằng’s breadth of artistic conveyances emerges an inter-referentialrelationship between her printed poetry and paper-based sculpture— mediated through the versatile medium of paper. “Similar to how I choose my canvas as a painter, or build my mould as a sculptor, I am sensitive toward the texture, sheen and thickness of each type of paper. Before printing any publication, I will think about the book’s ethos, and what type of paper will most appropriately express that ethos. By understanding their characteristics, I can then bend the paper’s imposed functionality and experiment with new forms and techniques in printing”, shared Hằng.3 She carries her attunement to the formal qualities of paper as a material into her sculptural practice, where the artist alchemizes paper to create sculptures that invoke the texture of plaster or emulate the thickness of wood. “Paper can be as durable as metal, if you know how to enhance its fibrous essence. In sculpture, I always want to show people how un-fragile paper can be, to reverse our typical understanding of its materiality”, Hằng exclaimed.4”
Read the full article at Southeast of NOW.
