Cerulean Blue / Màu Thiên Thanh
Cerulean Blue, 2025
Acrylic & soil pigment on paper in wooden frame
36 x 23.8 cm
Photo
SUCHSIZE / Yukawa Nakayasu
The first part of my stamp painting series ‘As Roots to Trees, as Sea to Streams’ whose title stems from a Vietnamese proverb and the practice of honoring family history, is greatly inspired by my grandmother, the array of characters surrounding her and sometimes hidden corners of their lives. Instead of the usual motifs of celebrated public figures, world heritage sites, plants, or extinct animals found in Vietnamese stamps, the first part of the series seek to preserve personal and familial narratives.
Based on a photograph of my beloved grandmother at 18, as she left home to join the first formal journalism school of the Vietnamese revolution, alongside lines taken from her poem about female activists from that era. A 'hoa ban' (Bauhinia variegata flower), significant to northern Vietnam where she often worked as a journalist, is also featured.
The title 'Cerulean blue' refers to her 1982 novel of the same name, where a female prisoner/ protagonist dreamt of freedom in this sky-blue hue.