Monday, May 24, 2010

'Memorial Project Nha Trang, Vietnam (2001)




Research this project to identify the ideas behind the work. Can you connect some of the concepts and ideas from the renaissance, Enlightenment or Modernism with the work. Discuss your answer.

Discuss how do you think the title of the work reflects the artists' intentions?



Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba was originally born in Tokyo, Japan who works and lives in Vietnam today. He is an artist who devotes himself to his work which mainly focuses on the history and life of the Vietnamese people. His video work Memorial Project Nha Trang, Vietnam: Towards the Complex—For the Courageous, the Curious, and the Cowards is a 13 minute video that was shot completely underwater in 2001 at Nha Trang, Vietnam. This work features “captivating images of some local fisherman’s pulling cyclo’s (rickshaws) underwatertoward an area where the artist stretched about thirty mosquito nets across the sea bed.” (Tezuka, 2008)

The fishermen must remain calm while pulling their cyclo’s until they run out of breathe until they rush to the surface for a gasp of air, “the arduous job of dragging the cyclos through the ocean speaks to the difficult burden of the past in the face of modernization.” (Hewitt, 2008) This video signifies what local Vietnamese drivers go through in the current reality of their lives.


The meaning behind this work is the reflection of the crucial lifestyle of some Vietnamese people, who struggle with the change in modernization and industrialization, “The cyclos, submerged in deep water, represent the weight of tradition and reference Vietnam’s historical past in the context of the country’s struggle with the processes of modernization.” (Vietnam: A Memorial Work, n.d.) The cyclo’s was a well-known vehicle that was used in the olden days for transportation, cyclo’s was driven by men who used their man-power to pull the cyclo’s, delivering people and goods around places. Cyclo’s was a good tool for the environment, it did not need fuel or gas to help it run, although the government has decided to forbid the making of cyclo’s because they thought that it was a slow and old-fashioned vehicle. The cyclo’s was also seen as a cheap way of transportation that provided a source of income for all of the unemployed people in Vietnam, this resulted the official banning of the cyclo’s and was strictly not to be used on the streets of Vietnam, “Rickshaw drivers and fishermen, both of whom are being replaced by industrial fishing and cars”.


The Enlightenment era, was the start of the development and reason for making the world a better place for humankind, this concept can be clearly reflected onto Nguyen-Hatsushiba’s work, the Vietnamese government wanted to sacrifice their old traditional ways to become more of an advance and updated country surrounded with new technology that are a common use today. The community however found it difficult and challenging to adjust to their new environment and lifestyle. The title for this project Towards the Complex—For the Courageous, the Curious, and the Cowards is the representation of the nation discovering Vietnam’s own identity and after its war and political chaos.

“The men come across a portion of sea-floor, adorned in tents of mosquito netting, too rocky for the carts. They abandon their loads and swim together towards the surface in a tentative kind of victory or failure, which isn’t necessarily clear, and emerge into a new, unknown future.” (Hewitt, 2008)



Reference:


Hewitt, K, (2008), For the Courageous, the Curious, and the Cowards. Retrieved May 18th, 2010, from http://www.nyartbeat.com/nyablog/2008/07/for-the-courageous-the-curious-and-the-cowards/


Merchants Road, Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba, (n.d.). Retrieved May 20th, 2010, from http://www.tulca.ie/merchants_road.html

Tezuka, M, (2008), A Memorial Work By Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba, Asia Society. Retrieved May 16th, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jun_Nguyen-Hatsushiba_ref-3


Vietnam: A Memorial Work by Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba. (n.d.). Retrieved May 11th, 2010, from http://www.asiasociety.org/arts-culture/asia-society-musuem/past-exhibitions/vietnam-memorial-work-jun-nguyen-hatsushiba

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4 comments:

  1. caoyida@hotmail.comMay 26, 2010 at 4:07 AM

    I have to say this is the first time that I see an art project was made under water.And your post make me vividly understanding the meaning behind this work.

    sometimes a country's industrialization has been taking sacrifices its national tradition as the price.And it worth or not alwalys a dispute question .When we go back to review the history,it should be thought that what we obtained and what we lost.

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  2. ShannonHillJune 2, 2010 at 12:26 AM

    I admire how the artist managed to take a strong and relevant concept and turn it into an artistic performance so literally. Like you described in your post, a lot of these cyclo "drivers" are being replaced, simply through upgrades in convenience, despite the advantages they bring - ie. reliable job creation for the lower classes, no impact on the environment, and the ease of creating the vehicle. This work represents this struggle very well, even with the leaps in technology and convenience, these people's futures are still huge question marks.

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  3. ValenteneJune 7, 2010 at 4:27 PM

    The fact that he does not use actors but real fisherman in the midst of something that they would call a normal struggle or simply a 'chore' of everyday life really builds the intensity of the labor that these fisherman face. As they kick of the ground, quickly swimming to the surface for a gasp of air, a person of a westernized community would see such hardship as truly unnecessarywith the new technology of our age.
    It is also some what refreshing to know that although through modernization and industrialization old methods and traditions have survived. And it is amazing how such can be turned into a technology reliant piece of art.
    Although the subject matter and meaning behind this work is based on old traditions and the rejection of westernized methods, ideologies of modernization are extremely evident. Hatsushiba shows interest in the everyday and the mundane for the Vietnamese. As such work is common for them. You can also see interest in the future, the scientific or the technological as to really capture the moment, the labor and the atmosphere of the hardship the fisherman face underwater, a specific video camera is required. But in relation to the future of this community and tradition, with the world constantly developing and changing, what happens for them next is unknown.

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  4. Hye ran, kimSeptember 2, 2010 at 7:26 AM

    I agree your point. In her films human's shapes are basic of characters. Even though her work's topics are war, violence, sexuality and sadism which are made by human, her clay figures are traditional tales and her ideas which are hidden topics, are same with typical children works. Once, Djurberg’s stories relate to traditional themes of folktales and purpose which was made by human for children such as “the best is good and the worst is bad.”

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