GallerySkyscrapers in Hong Kong are among the most iconic and impressive in the world, reflecting the city’s status as a major global financial hub and urban marvel. Hong Kong boasts one of the highest concentrations of skyscrapers globally, with over 7,000 buildings exceeding 100 meters in height.
To shape its iconic skyline with a more distinctive style, several renowned architects such as I.M. Pei for the Bank of China, N. Foster for the International Commerce Centre (ICC),
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GalleryThe Evolution of the “Far East” Through Travel and Art
The article traces the evolution of the concept of the “Far East” from a romanticized travel destination to a complex, multicultural identity. It begins with a personal reflection on how a vintage photo album of a French tea producer’s journey to Vietnam sparked a feeling of authentic travel, a sensation lost in modern, routine air travel. This sentiment is contrasted with the early travelogue of Goethe’s “Italian Journey,”
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GalleryGardens hold a significant place in various mythologies around the world, often symbolizing paradise, creation, and the divine. More then now then ever gardens provide a direct connection to nature, offering a peaceful escape from the hustle and bustle of daily life.
In Japanese mythology and Zen Buddhism, gardens are seen as places of meditation and reflection. They often symbolize the natural world in its most essential and abstract form. Early gardens were influenced by Chinese garden philosophy,
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GalleryThis series intricately depicts selected nodes of the different threads woven throughout the last century of Vietnamese history, employing narrative elements reminiscent of a compelling tale.
According to ancient Vietnamese mythology, the people of Vietnam are believed to be descendants of a dragon and an Immortal. The prominent myth of the origins of the Vietnamese people involves Lạc Long Quân, a dragon lord, and Âu Cơ, a fairy, who had 100 children from 100 eggs.
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Gallery“This show will explore the dynamic interaction between XEM’s artworks, innovative installation concepts, and viewer engagement, creating a lively and evolving environment. Be part of it to experience the energy and creativity that XEM brings to the forefront of contemporary photography, as they continue to redefine the medium’s role in both archival truth and fictional creation.” Text by Vin Gallery
Visual artist Quang Lam explores the relationship between maps and territory. It is encapsulated in the famous expression “the map is not the territory,” coined by Polish-American philosopher Alfred Korzybski.
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GalleryIn cartography, terra incognita refers to regions that have not been mapped or documented. The expression is believed to have first appeared in Ptolemy’s Geography around 150 CE1. It denotes unexplored or unfamiliar territories. Interestingly, the phrase has also been used metaphorically to describe any uncharted subject or field of research
This series captures the in-situ construction of a Terra Incognita that unfolded over several months. In an exposed ruin, buffeted by rain and wind,
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GalleryWritten by Dr Bridget Tracy Tan
Director, Institute of Southeast Asia Arts – Art Galleries
Academic Advisor (Southeast Asian Arts)
Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts
“Quang Lam’s style is unquestioningly about play, but also about accountability. He wants the viewer to know how we experience what we experience, through what we enact and the thoughts we think, the ways in which we move. His contribution to the exhibition is a series of installations demonstratng the state of the world.
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GalleryThe main idea of the Quang Lam’s work in this exhibition is to explore the concept of the Far-East Asia in which Saigon and Singapore were essential nodes for its representation.
From wikipedia about:
“The term first came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 15th century, particularly the British, denoting the Far East as the “farthest” of the three “Easts”, beyond the Near East and the Middle East.[..] Significantly,
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This series has been displayed at Sa Sa Art Projects in Phnom Penh (Cambodia) with the XEM collective
Excerpt for the presentation text by curator Lyno Vuth
“In the exhibition, physical works by each of the five artists take forms extending from their presentation in the magazine. The works presented here by XEM deal with not only what separates us but also what bonds and unites us. The very same things can produce multiple complex effects.
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GalleryThe texte has been written by Blanche CARDONER (Ecole du Louvre)
in her study – Contemporary photography Vietnamese and memory, Selection of works by contemporary Vietnamese artists or the diaspora working on their History
Manifestations and reminiscences of History: Quang Lam, R Like (2012 – 2015)
Quang Lam, on the contrary, is interested in a space highly representative of Vietnamese history in R Like… (2012 – 2015). The series may also be titled Reunification’s Reminiscence.
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GalleryTo fly is one of the deepest dream of humans. The myth of Icarus has always inspired our imagination. The Futurism art movement in the early 20th century emphasized dynamism, speed, technology, youth, through the flying machines.
Quang Lam is interested to study the modernity (of Vietnam) by its industrial and technology’s development through this universal desire. This point of view has rarely used to understand the art history of the country.
Project Air SkyLen
The project is to build a virtual airline company named Air SkyLen
Airlines are the symbols of the technology’s level of a country.
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GalleryAt the Art Institute of South-East Asia in Singapore, the Terra Utopia series is currently on display as part of the exhibition XEM – Meta Far-East. This captivating collection explores the evolution of perceptions of the “Far East,” tracing its journey from antiquated geographical views to a more nuanced understanding shaped by the colonial era and the pressing challenges posed by climate change.
The photographs resemble aerial landscapes of uncharted coastal territories, evoking the sense of mystery that surrounded Far East Asia,
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GalleryThis series has been presented at the International Photo Biennale Hanoi in 2023 at the exhibition “IN SEARCH OF THE LOST TIME”.
Quang Lam’ artist statement :
There are places where architecture and urban planning are not only shaped by the needs of the Present but also by the beliefs of a life beyond.
This photographic series is imbued with this philosophy that shaped Hue, the imperial city in central Vietnam,
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GalleryThis installation is a part of Air Skylen project displayed at Hanoi Creative Week 2022.
The installation has a game video installed in an immersive environment built with a large city map of Hanoi and surrounded by photos of anonymous skyscrapers photo series.
The purpose of the game is to crash the airplane into growing buildings replacing them by trees. The score is defined by a green city percentage.
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GalleryThe myth to reach the sky is as old as humanity, especially told in the myth of Icarus. It has become technologically possible in 20th century.
Architecture also embraced this myth as the new credo. Nowadays, the term skyline is used to describe this type of urbanism based on the vertical line. Skyscrapers became the symbols of the superpower of capitalism
With the vibrant red and blue colors which are creating a time lag impression,
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Gallery Speaking about “Extinction” is not only about physical matters but also on what is defining us as social humanity within an economical and legal system. Hong Kong is a unique because of its location as a door for both capitalism and communism world. With its history and its economic power, it was and is in the avant-garde and a laboratory of what will happen in the near future.
2047 is the expiration date of the Basic Law which currently is giving the status of special administrative region (SAR) of China for 50 years.
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Gallery“Movement and tranquility alternate and become the root of each other,
Separating into yin and yang and so establishing the two modes….
The interaction of the two forms of qi transform and generate the myriad things.
The myriad things sprout out up again and again and change without end”
-Zhou Dunyin (1017–1073)
He was a Chinese philosopher during the Song Dynasty.
He conceptualized the cosmology,
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GalleryThe Greek etymology of the word
Chaos means a fracture or a gap. In mathematics, Chaos Theory studies the
behavior of systems that are very sensitive to initial conditions, a phenomenon
generally illustrated by “the butterfly effect”.
This term was used Edward Lorenz,
American mathematician and meteorologist to describe the theoretical basis of
weather and climate predictability, which is based on this idea that small
causes may have large effects in general.
Because the photographer assisted to a recent destruction of
colonial villa in Saigon which has survived for one hundred year of turmoil,
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GalleryThis series combines black and white, color photography providing expressionist relationships between internal and external perceptions.
“Every life is born pure, and then it will be dirty and dirty, in the hands of others or sometimes by ourself .
I wonder why people have to bathe and shower so much?
Sometimes I want to be like fish swimming in a water tank to believe that my life will not be tainted.”
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GalleryLandscape genre: “Landscape painting, the depiction of natural scenery in art. Landscape paintings may capture mountains, valleys, bodies of water, fields, forests, and coasts and may or may not include man-made structures as well as people. Although paintings from the earliest ancient and Classical periods included natural scenic elements, landscape as an independent genre did not emerge in the Western tradition until the Renaissance in the 16th century. In the Eastern tradition, the genre can be traced back to 4th-century-CE China.” – Britannica.
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GalleryThe concept of gaze (often also called the gaze or, in French, le regard), in analysing visual culture, is one that deals with how an audience views the people, objects presented. The concept of the gaze was first discussed by 1960s French intellectuals.
This series is investigating the gaze in art, about what we expect to find behind Art while looking at it. These photos haven been taken at the Art Fair 2019 at Taipei.
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GalleryThe site of Hue was chosen for its particular properties meeting the requirements of geomancy (Feng Shui) for the establishment of the Nguyen dynasty in the early nineteenth century.
Successively , the emperors prepared and built their graves for their last journey into the afterlife.
The vital fluxes still shine through these funeral palaces whose arrangement scrupulously follows the esoteric rules.
On the site of the tomb of the Emperor Minh Mang where the art of the garden and palaces is at its edge,
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GalleryThis series highlights Confucian influences in the Vietnamese youth.
Portraits were taken at the cultural festival in the city of Hue, former imperial capital where scenes of mimes reconstituted the life in the Forbidden City. Models are wearing traditionnal ao dai dress.
Fans’ images are Chinese historical fan from the MET Archive.
The series uses the framing of drawings and paintings which is the common manner to see images on a wall or in a book.
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GalleryPhotography is about questioning of what reality is and what is captured by the camera.
It is nowadays stimulated by the concept of « hyper-reality » defined by J. Beaudrillard.
It is the inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality.
This is particularly relevant nowadays where people accept created environments as primarily models, when they are actually all fake.
Video mapping can express the dissolution of the reality into a form that have any reference to the initial architecture.
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GalleryPhotography is about questioning of what reality is and what is captured by the camera.
It is nowadays stimulated by the concept of « hyper-reality » defined by J. Beaudrillard.
It is the inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality.
This is particularly relevant nowadays where people accept created environments as primarily models, when they are actually all fake.
Territories fade into entertainment parks, symbols of hyperreal powers.
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GalleryThe psychological consequence of motion through the hyper-real world is, expressed by the 360° serial photography of Honda models sold in Vietnam’s market.
GalleryThis series is telling the temptation of Siddhārtha Buddha by the Goddess of Beauty, in an imaginary paradise full of flowers. As principle of Buddhism, the Middle Way should be followed between the extremes of sensual indulgence and self-mortification. But it is not easy to comply strictly with this recommendation.
Seeing photography is more an analogic process than a logic one, with a sense of humor too. This is how the series should be appreciated as a fairy tale.
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Gallery“Dream objects” subject has been developed by the Surrealists. The chance meeting of a strange object, a “slipper spoon”, provoked a sense of déja-vu to poet André Breton. That object was analyzed later as an artifact from his dreams.
GalleryThis could be anywhere but on the beach with sunshine.
With an architecture for international tastes, the rooms’ decoration add a specific touch of Asia with some traditional furniture.
Rooms are with view on the sea and private swimming pools. For couples in honeymoon, the beds are king-size or queen-size.
The empty theater looks familiar, all built for ultimate luxury.
In the no man’s resort, nobody should come for the simulacrum to remain perfect.
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GalleryNeons of luxury are glowing on the deserted avenue. The glass facades reflect the logos that spread their mystical light in the night, a continual desire generated by billions invested of advertising. From Paris to Saigon via Hong Kong, it flows throughout the journey with the same stage direction.
Galleryvotive:
Which belongs to the vow.
Votive object, object offered to fulfill a vow
