In the process of learning about Vietnamese traditional arts, I got the chance to know many art masters of traditional music and their special techniques. They represent their unique artistic characteristics that allows audiences to distinguish one musician to another. It can be understood as their signature, or their own stamp. Differing from Western classical music, traditional Vietnamese music does not exist in musical notes, so musicians never play an identical piece. Just as life changes, music transforms depending on the personality, life, and mood of each musician. What attracts me about traditional art is the subtle, slow vibrations of sound. It gives me a sense of wholesomeness. The contrast is even more stark when juxtaposing this genre of art next to Vietnamese contemporary life, where social changes, urbanization, and information take place at an overwhelming speed. It seems that there is not enough space and time to really listen, to feel the small movements. Calmness becomes a luxury.

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This work is my new experiment, for which I combine the sound (by infusing the recorded sounds performed by traditional music masters with the sound I create myself) and the visual elements (video of Đào Tam Xuân, a classic female character in Vietnamese Tuong portrayed in prolonged movements).

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The video and audio elements are independent, yet appear in dialogue with one another allowing the audience to navigate through the artwork, interact with it and make up their own ‘narrative’.