American artist Hap Tivey’s installation work that will be on display at San Art in Ho Chi Minh City from next week is a fascinating play on light and dark.

It involves walking into a darkened space where the light of a projected image is thrown from the rear on to a crafted rubber sculpture.

The viewer will see two different images from either side of the projection screen.

“When the video is running we may ‘see’ cars exploding, people in flames, bridges, buildings, water. When the video pauses, as it will periodically of its own accord, or if a viewer activates the pause function, we can only see the abstract light falling on convoluted surfaces,” he said.

“Every painting is a surface of light. We never see a ‘thing’ when we look at a painting. We see the light reflected from the surface and we imagine the ‘thing’ just as we imagine the illusion of a horse, a crucifixion or Cezanne’s wife.

“I began working with light in chambers in which one could only see light; one could not find any trace or suggestion of ‘things.’ This work is a logical evolution of that beginning.”

The installation will occupy the entire gallery space at San Art.

Working since the late 1960s in Los Angeles, Tivey, 62, is a member of the first generation of artists in the US in the 60s and 70s whose work contributed to the coining of installation art.

His works have been displayed in the US and abroad, including representation in public collections like the Museum of Modern Art and Solomon R Guggenheim in New York .

Earlier, Tivey held a panel discussion at the HCM City Fine Arts College on the phenomenon of installation art, its development and the work of other installation artists of his generation.

Light Shreds-2000 Car Paintings open at 6pm on New Year’s Eve and will continue until February 9./.