Puppeteer Phan Thanh Liem by his mini water puppet stage (Source: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) - A talktitled “The Story of Water Puppetry”, hosted by artist Ngo Thanh Bac and puppetartisan/performance artist Phan Thanh Liem, will be held on January 8 in Hanoi.
The talk, which is partof the project “Reimagine Artist/Artisan”, will introduce audiences to miniwater puppetry and its value in the field of visual art.
After various fieldtrips to traditional craft villages, artist Ngo Thanh Bac, as a member of theresearch project, chose water puppets as the main materials for his work “Do INeed to Introduce My Name Here?”, which will be exhibited along with anotherfour art works in Six Space from January 5 to 12, 2017.
He has learned from andworked together with artisan/artist Ngo Thanh Liem to make the puppets, andthen incorporated them into his installment of a mini communal house and pondbuilt in a small crate.
The two artists willshare their personal journey in art, talk about the value and structure ofwater puppets as a mini version, as well as their coordination and roles withinthe scope of the “Reimagine Artist/Artisan” project.
Bac graduated from theFine Art University in 2008. He participated in numerous exhibitions withvisual and performance work. He is one of the six members of the Annex Group –a performance art group that uses daily objects as analogical tools todemonstrate repetitive and somewhat unreasonable behavior over an extendedperiod of time in order to reflect social issues or personal preoccupations.
Liem was born to afamily of seven generations that have been preserving water puppetry in thenorthern provinces of Vietnam. His grandfather, Phan Van Huyen, was a puppetcraftman and artisan and his father, the famous puppeteer Phan Van Ngai,created the mobile water puppetry stage. He also made Teu (a humorous farmer)puppet, which is displayed in France’s Louvre Museum. Phan Thanh Liem is thevery first artisan who created mini water puppetry and has been performing bothin Vietnam and overseas.
The “Reimagine TheArtist/Artisan” project is created and run by a group ofmultidisciplinary artists and art researchers who are inspired, nostalgic andpassionate about the history, knowledge, aesthetics and possibilities of artcraftsmanship and craft villages in Vietnam.
Launched in 2016, thisparticipatory art-based research project aims to foster learning, dialogue andcollaboration among artists, artisans and the wider public to openly converseon various matters including cultural, aesthetic and social functions of theartist/artisan in the creative process and production, and shared influencebetween artists and artisans.- VNA
