Since her first solo exhibition Den, Noi Den Cua Con Trung (Light, Destination of Insects), young artist Nguyen Phuong Linh has held a number of solo exhibitions both at home and abroad.

She spoke about her latest work, Boat. Made from tonnes of salt, the sculpture is on display at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University until February.

How did you come to show your work at Michigan State University?

In 2009, I had an exhibition entitled Salt at the Quynh Gallery in HCM City. It was highly acclaimed by my colleagues. Boat was among the works at the exhibition.

Then the art museum contacted me to ask if I could bring Boat to the US. But I was busy at that time with another exhibition in Canada, so Boat was set up in Michigan by Nguyen Tran Nam [my assistant in Salt]. Building it took almost 3.5 tonnes of salt, which the art museum bought from a Vietnamese salt export company.

You count industrial factories producing rubber, detergent and cigarettes among your inspirations, and your work is made from dust, salt and insects, among other things. How do you choose these materials?

When I worked on the exhibition Dust, I travelled to many places in Japan, South Korea and Viet Nam to collect dust from different objects like old books and old suitcases. Any object covered with dust carries many messages from the past. The dust was then kept in bottles which inspired old memories.

Salt came to me after I visited the Tinh Gia Beach in the central province of Thanh Hoa. I witnessed salt workers toiling to earn their livelihood. I collected about 700 sets of clothes belonging to salt workers as well as salt-producing tools from different localities.

All the objects show how painstaking salt production is. After the exhibit, the salt will melt and leave only a fine residue.

After dust and salt, what material will your next display be made from?

I want to do something about sea and lighthouses. But I haven't thought about specifics. I will probably collect lighthouses from different seas.

Recently, you were a curator for the Skylines with Flying People exhibition inspired by Tran Dan's poem. Why did you choose this name for the exhibition?

For me, Tran Dan is a pioneer in the renovated Vietnamese poetry, and he inspired many of my creations. In 1987, he wrote "I cried for the skylines without flying people/I then cried for the flying people without skylines" to describe the difficult situation of Vietnamese artists.

I chose the sentence to be the theme of the exhibition because contemporary art still faces many difficulties. We, the artists, still have to work hard to create and to fly.

The exhibition Skylines with Flying People has been shown at the Japan Foundation, the Goethe Institute and Nha San Studio in Ha Noi. It displayed works by Vietnamese and Japanese artists.

How long did you plan the exhibition?

Right after the success of the exhibition Dust in Japan, I thought about a multi-media exhibition for Vietnamese and foreign contemporary artists. In December 2011, I began to discuss concrete plans with the artists and sent a proposal to the Japan Foundation to obtain funding.

You are young but have already had many exhibitions abroad. Is this due to talent or luck?

There are not many artists in Viet Nam, particularly female artists. The most important thing is that I work at Nha San Studio, where there are many art installations.

The other thing is that the art network is quite broad. I have been invited to be curator or art director at art exhibitions held in many galleries in Ha Noi and HCM City. As a result, foreign organisations know me well. — VNS