Vietnamese artist Tran Nguyen Uu Dam will embark on his 30-day voyage across the Pacific Ocean by cargo boat from Việt Nam at the end of this month. (Photo: Uudam Tran Nguyen's Facebook) Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Vietnamese multimedia artist Tran Nguyen Uu Dam willembark on a performance trip by cargo boat from Vietnam to the US at the end ofthis month. The 30-day journey and performance along the coast of Californiawill complete one small segment of the artist’s long-term, multi-phase workentitled Time Boomerang.
Launched by the artist in 2013, the project includes performances,installations and other forms of interactive art in various countries aroundthe world.
The artist’s journey will be sponsored by the Orange County Museum of Art inthe US and other organisations in addition to his own budget. He also usedcrowdfunding.
As part of Time Boomerang, Dam is travelling to oceans on five continents todeposit bronze models of his fingertips into the water.
Dam said he was inspired by stories about the East Sea. His original idea wasto launch bronze fingertips to the north, south, west and east of Vietnam tosymbolise ownership, control and protection. Since then he has expanded hisidea to the whole globe, reflecting his thoughts about colonialism andimperialism.
“I cast my hand, fingers fully outstretched in my childhood measuring gesture,in metal," the artists wrote on Facebook. "When it was completed, Icut off the five fingertips and moved them away from the hand. Over a period ofseveral years, I will place the fingertips in oceans in five differentcontinents, symbolically extending my ability to measure (or mark newterritories).”
In September 2015, Dam launched the first bronze fingertip into the waters ofthe Gulf of Bothnia in Europe. Two months later, he placed the second into thewaters of Moreton Bay in Australia. California was chosen as the nextdestination for this August. The performance will complete the third part ofTime Boomerang's second of eight phases.
The first phase was entitled "The Real Distances of Things BeingMeasured". Phase two is called "The New Conqueror with a GoodPassport".
Dam said that although the project now extends to the rest of the world, itsidea originated from Vietnam.
“I left Vietnam at the age of 23 but my foundation is still based there,"he said. "I decided to go back to Vietnam because I can feel the specialemotions there, as artists tend to follow their emotions."
“I do not dare to say that I represent Vietnam’s contemporary arts,” he added.“I’m just a tiny segment of Vietnam’s contemporary arts which have been createdby many talented artists. However, on stepping out of Vietnam, I have alwaysbeen aware that international audiences' views of the country and itscontemporary arts will be reflected through my works of arts.”
Born in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum, Dam was trained as asculptor at Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts University. He then received a Bachelorof Art at the University of California, Los Angeles and a Master of Fine Artsat the School of Visual Arts in New York.
Dam combines video, performance, photography, sculpture and new media, and hisworks have been exhibited internationally in such destinations as theQueensland Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane and the Asia Society in New York.— VNS/VNA
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