The Print -
Epitaphs of
Lost Trees
The Print - Epitaphs of Lost Trees, 2018 - 2021
Acid-treated & hand-scraped mirrors, fluorescent spray paint, acrylic paint, reflections from living trees Dimensions variable
In 2018, to execute the construction plan of Thủ Thiêm 2 bridge in
Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon, more than 100 century-old trees on Tôn Đức Thắng street were removed over the course of one week. I lived very close to the site during that period. Devastated by the news, I and two other friends brought some wood-block printing tools to the construction site. Our impromptu printing session was in an attempt to trace and document the remaining tree trunks from such controversial site clearance.
Another setting, Đà Lạt city, is well-known for its greeneries. However, there remained a notorious issue of pine trees being illegally poisoned and cut, besides the city’s concurrent rising environmental problems.
My installation consists of mirrors, paint and the reflections of trees in Đà Lạt. The traces on these mirrors were extracts from the wood-block prints of the trees on Tôn Đức Thắng street. The mirrors act as intervals, or epitaphs in remembrance of nature lost. At the same time, they conjure the liminality between the lost trees and the ones under threat.
The original wood-block print we made from one of the lost trees on Tôn Đức Thắng street, Ho Chi Minh City
Our impromptu wood-block printing session on Tôn Đức Thắng street, Ho Chi Minh City