Wiking Salon and the Lan Tinh Foundation are pleased to invite the audience to “Ephemeral Dimensions” - a duo exhibition by artists Nguyen Viet Anh and Mifa.
The duo exhibition “Ephemeral Dimensions” by artists Nguyen Viet Anh and Mifa, featuring over 25 paintings in oil on canvas and acrylic on traditional Vietnamese Điệp paper, opens a dialogue on a speculative dimension where objects seemingly devoid of consciousness—like bones, rocks, fossils, or concrete blocks—exist independently of human conventions, silently recording the shifts of geological strata and history.
Rocks, skeletons, fossils, or concrete blocks – these seemingly lifeless entities – were formed after millions of years of being under pressure and moulding of nature, or simply made by humans These masses silently record every change in the universe since the dawn of time. Through the impacts and upheavals of natural elements, these rocks gradually emerge on the surface, as if the silent witnesses of time. If the human race measures life through emotions, memories, and fleeting events; these entities exist with a different rhythm, quiet and resilient. Within them are not only the solidity of matter but also an encyclopaedia of natural history, documenting every single change in strata, climate, and life. In their silence, these artefacts have been through cycles of birth – existence – transformation – death, continuously evolving, opening up a new perspective about life, one which surpasses human knowledge and understanding – a resilient, patient, yet ever-transforming facing the flow of time.
Artist’s Statement for the Exhibition:
'I think about the inner resonance of things that seem calm and unchanging in the face of time’s constant shifts. When we observe an object, we perceive it in that present moment, yet we miss the rushing current of emotions, growth, decline, conflicts, and tranquility that have accumulated throughout its evolution—or that of a person.
I’m drawn to depicting vessels, or viewing the subject I paint as vessels in their own right. These could be ceramic jars brimming with seawater after five forgotten centuries at the ocean floor; verses and words as reservoirs of feelings; the communal nature of fungi and lichens, anchoring one another in connection; quiet beings going on with their lives; garden cradling the life cycles of nature’s creations; or stone holding the memory of stories over time. A central feeling for me in both life and my creative practice is an awe of the grand interconnectedness of all natural creations, including humankind. Perhaps people are among the most complex vessels in history, in the limited knowledge I’ve gathered—not due to the biologies of our bodies, but due to the layers of feelings interwoven within us, at times overflowing, peacefully still, or layered in tension.
The quiet lives in nature and the chain of stories they bear through time reveal to me a never-ending inner movement in people as well. And no matter what we go through, we truly only exist in this single moment. All past, future, memories, and emotions around those memories—all of it exists in this present instant. Even a thousand-year weight of memories is a blink in the span of a lifetime.'
Mifa, 10-2024
