Aqueous Altar
Aqueous Altar, 2020 - On-going
Acid-treated & fluorescent spray-painted mirror, glass sphere, glass support, mirror, reflective vinyl, approx. W 45 x D 45 x H 60 cm
This altar installation is a continuation and an extension of my acid-treated mirror motifs from a previous work titled Lakes. The sacred hand symbol here is depicted holding a glass sphere, itself containing the image of an altar floating on an aqueous surface.
These motifs came from my research of Hanoi’s lake network and its perplexing issues of lake pollution during 2019-2020. Paradoxically, while water is revered as a highly sacred element for Vietnam’s wet-rice cultivation since ancient time, public water spaces have become waste dumps where people discard their worship objects in modern days. Hence, the sacred hand symbol holding a glass sphere, inspired from the many hands of Cundi Bodhisattva, was created through the act of destroying the mirror surface with acid, leaving its shape see-through, as if being evaporated.