"Vitality"
Telling stories
"Seeds" - a sculpture exhibition displaying at the New Space Arts Foundation (Lai The, Phu Thuong, Phu Vang) from April 14th to May 14th is the first individual exhibition of sculptor Le Ngoc Thai (hometown in Quang Binh, living in Hue).
Talking about the life cycle, movement and vitality of "seeds" in all things with sculptures, Le Ngoc Thai's works show young shoots, seeds with different shapes: seeds buried in the ground, seeds germinating, growing and rotting, sprouts soaking in the goodness of heaven and earth, and reaching out to find the light of life ... With this exhibition, viewers also see seeds chatting, singing or laughing, and hear the breath of the seeds.
"Moving seeds" is the topic mentioned most by Le Ngoc Thai. For each work, seeds move in different ways. From rice grains, the young sprouts are made of steel, showing a strong will to live in a harsh environment.
In a discarded log, Le Ngoc Thai envisioned life and the "Lonely Seed" was born. Seeds that grow out of stone give viewers a feeling of another type of vitality: with nourishing hands, from the soil, flowers will bloom. Some Thai’s works express the anxious wait and expectation that people have after sowing seeds ...
Cluster of works on the theme "Seeds"
The sculptor Le Ngoc Thai said that the idea of creating about "seeds" came to him so casually when he observed the movement of his first child while still in his mother's womb. Feeling the intense vitality of the child, he thought of the seeds and pursued this subject for many years.
Experiencing life, he saw the movement, the survival of all things like the life cycle of the seeds, birth and death, and death nourishing birth. From the seeds, he could say many things about human life.
"The seeds will grow and rise strongly when it has enough vitality and love. The seeds will move weakly if they are surrounded by stuffy, polluted environments. Life has given you and me seeds, let sow them on every step of the way we pass, then one day the seeds will flourish into sweet love, joy and happiness ...”. This is the message that Le Ngoc Thai wants to send to viewers through his works.
According to Le Minh Kai, the sculptor, a former lecturer of the College of Arts - Hue University, with the exhibition "Seeds", Le Ngoc Thai completely escaped what he had previously been instructed and taught, especially in the way of creating novel shapes, which combined the modern and folk characteristics. The layout and image are chiseled in new ways to express the vitality of the seeds and the young shoots, but still subtly express the thought, the characteristics of the Vietnamese countryside.
Le Ngoc Thai introducing the "Seeds" exhibition.
Passionate and creative
Le Ngoc Thai was born in 1974 in Quang Binh province. For him, art is a passion from childhood, associated with chisel games of childhood in the countryside. After his demobilization, he enrolled in the Sculpture Department, College of Arts, Hue University.
Graduating and earning a living with another profession, Thai is still passionate about art and spends a lot of time creating it. Love, childhood, environment and now the seeds, are the themes expressed by the sculptor Le Ngoc Thai in his works.
According to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Phan Thanh Binh, Rector of the College of Arts, - Hue University, the works of Le Ngoc Thai have a breath of strong modern sculpture language, his expression is very different from other sculptors when in each work is a subject that is seen more directly.
This is clearly reflected in the work "Pain" (awarded by Vietnam Fine Arts Association in 2008). Expressing the face of a mother, which has the traces of time, inside the face of the mother reflected the deformed portraits of dioxin-infected children. Le Ngoc Thai portrays the extreme pain of war. The face of the mother asks a big question: will the pain ever subside?
With sculpturing, Le Ngoc Thai has achieved some success. In 2008, at the North Central Fine Arts Exhibition organized by the Vietnam Fine Arts Association, he won the prize with the work "Pain", and won the Award A in 2009 with his work "Revival".
In 2010, his work "Glass Effect" won the encouragement prize at the national art exhibition. He chose Hue as his second homeland not only because Hue is the cradle of sculpture in particular and art in general. With Le Ngoc Thai, Hue is also a beautiful memory of an eager time trying to find himself, a place where aspirations are affirmed, and devotion and creativity nurtured...
By TRANG HIEN