Crossing arts exhibition arrives in capital city

Hanoi 14 (VNA) – An exhibition opened on December 13 night featuring new works by Gabby Miller, as part of the Queer Forever!2015 festival being held in Hanoi.

The exhibition, entitled Crossing, includes Miller's new paintings, photos, video and sculptures, created during and after a long ocean journey.

In August, Miller crossed the Pacific Ocean on the CMA CGM Gemini, a 380m-long ship carrying 11,000 containers.

She was the only passenger on the ocean ship traveling from Oakland, the US for Xiamen, China, which was filled with thousands of empty containers.

On its return trip, the ship carries goods and products manufactured in Asia.

The trip took about 21 days.

Aboard the ship, and in the months following in Vietnam, she has been developing a new body of work that explores the geopolitical history, and current movement of goods, people and power across ocean borders.

The project was made possible with the support of the Asian Cultural Council.

Some of Miller's paintings were created when she was aboard ship. She sometimes used oil from the ship's engines while painting.

The exhibition will run until January 3 at Nha San Collective, 15th Floor, Hanoi Creativity City building, 1 Luong Yen street.

Miller is an interdisciplinary artist based in San Francisco. As a visual artist and organiser, her creative practice investigates contemporary existence within and across multiple locations.

She has lived and worked in Vietnam, the birthplace of her mother, as well as San Francisco, where she was born and raised.

Often using her own body in her works, she is inventing a visual language through experiments by merging sculpture, photography, performance and video.

The content of her work integrates a personal commitment to awareness of current political situations and the queer and alternative communities in The Bay Area and Southeast Asia.

The exhibition Crossing is a part of the Queer Forever!2015 which continues until January 3 in Hanoi.

As in 2013, the opening ceremony was dedicated to cinema, with a screening of Choi Voi (Adrift), an award winning film by director Bui Thac Chuyen.

After the screening a discussion with the movie's playwright Phan Dang Di was held.

In the tradition of the first festival, a series of talks have been being held during the festival around the topics of queer culture in the past and now.

A Love Art Market will be held on December 20.-VNA