Cuong Tuse’s exhibition “Nghịch Dất” (Translation “Against the Land”) at the Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Association featured an expansive collection of painting and sculpture. Tuse was mostly known for paintings that depicted settings hauntingly devoid of figures but serving as portraits of the unseen. The artist continues the play with presence and absence in his more recent body of sculptural works in his use of negative space.
During the period of celebration of the 50th anniversary of Reunification Day (aka The Fall of Saigon in 1975), many look to the successful economic development of the past half-century. Though years of hardship followed the end of the war, Vietnam has transitioned from a primarily agrarian economy to a major manufacturing and business hub.
In every society that experiences rapid growth, there are always growing pains. Though many benefit, some get left behind. Saigon riverbanks are lined with shacks that house workers in extreme poverty. The corrugated steel shacks he depicts in A Hamlet of Tin Houses, 2020 and At The Hilltop, 2020, are examples of temporary dwellings built by construction workers who have migrated from rural areas. Without their labor, growth would be impossible, but these people are not able to enjoy all that the city has to offer. The sheets of steel, also used for fencing, could suggest that the people living in these structures are fenced in, or imprisoned.
The paintings of houses in the highlands offer an alternative to scenes of rapid urban development. The region that sits between the north and the south is mostly known for producing coffee, a valuable export that fuels the economy and the nation’s coffee culture. This region also contains most of the ethnic minorities in Vietnam. These people often feel discrimination in land allocation, health care, education, and other government services–while also feeling censored from speaking out by the government. The raised houses are designed to withstand the high waters of the wet season aa well as housing livestock and keeping unwanted pests away.
During the pandemic quarantine period, Tuse began to “play with clay” beginning with the architectural elements of his 2-D work and transitioning to cast-bronze portraiture. Most of the pieces represent major cultural figures in Vietnam, many of these Tuse’s friends. Singer Ha Thi Cau, 2024 depicts a blind traveling singer holding a one-string instrument called a Dan Bau. Though she achieved fame in her lifetime, she died in poverty.
Tuse’s work juxtaposes the famous with the invisible, leaving no one unaccounted for in a country that is celebrating 50 years of peace after centuries of war and colonialism.
The exhibit ran thru April 21, 2025.
