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, more than 100 century-old trees on Tôn Đức Thắng street were removed over the course of one week. I used to live very close to that site during the 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 acid-treated then painted mirrors and the reflections of trees in Đà Lạt city during the Nocaibum Contemporary Art Week. It ponders on relations of urbanisation and environmental issues in Vietnam. The painted traces on these mirrors, at a first glance resembling an urban map, were actually extracted from the wood-block prints of the lost trees in Ho Chi Minh City. The mirrors act as intervals where traces of lost trees merge with ones under threat, or epitaphs in remembrance of nature lost in urban settings.
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