HCM CITY — An exhibition The Colour of the Soul by retired geologist Nguyen Thi Phi Loan will open today at HCM City's Centre of Display and Exhibition.
Discovering a passion for fabric and paper collage in her retirement, Loan is still committed to exploring the creativity and charm of collage.
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Sophisticated images: The painting depicts Loan's optimistic point of view about life and love, especially the love for nature, young girls and children. |
She has become known as an artist of old cloth and waste paper or the creative who "paints" with scissors, names that will become clear at her exhibition of 70 fabric and paper collages that are on display.
The exhibition marks a milestone in Loan's decade-long creative process.
Moreover, it depicts her optimistic point of view about life and love, especially the love for nature with beautiful landscapes and creatures, for young girls and children.
Loan used to study fabric collage in Osaka, Japan and oil painting in Ha Noi and Virginia, America and finally fell into using fabric and paper as her preferred materials to create painting.
With unique materials, she has created amazing works. Thanks to her clever hands and creative mind, patterns on clothing or even old clothes including spots, stripes and flowers can become parts of a painting. Different types of material such as denim, cotton, and silk create different effects to express the artist's ideas.
On viewing Loan's paintings, people can hardly recognise the difference between them and oil or water-colour painting because of her excellence in composition, colour matching and shape forming. People are surprised by the way Loan has cut the cloth or torn the papers into sophisticated pieces which may represent thin lips, round glistening eyes or a thoughtful face.
But her paintings could not have touched people's hearts if it had not been for the emotions that set Loan, an artist apart from an artisan or collage worker. The overflowing emotion available in the artist's soul has brought vitality to cloth and paper.
Playwright and artist Ngan Giang said Loan's paintings created a visual party for her eyes and senses. "I want to fully inhale the air and look at the beauty of life around me. That happiness is much more than owning expensive luxury jewellery," Ngan said at the first time she met Loan and saw her paintings.
Visitors to Colour of the Soul, should be able to absorb the feelings of what it means to be alive and human.
The images are vivid and sophisticated, bringing to mind abstract feelings of happiness, sadness, concern and moodiness.
Above all, Loan's collages render the generosity and empathy which Loan considers the core of human souls, a belief that the artist shares through her art and daily life.
Half of the profits from any sales will be donated to Be Tho Orphanage in the southern province of Dong Nai. The exhibition will run until next Saturday. — VNS