Opening: 18.10.2013 
Exhibition on view until 15.01.2014
Location: Phuong My Flagship Store
81 Le Thanh Ton Street
District 1
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

‘Silk of Light’ is a body of work inspired by light as both a physical and metaphorical medium. Bao Chau carefully studies the process of light as it covers, disperses and adjusts to the surface of different materials. The artist’s preoccupation with light arises from her deep interest in architecture, and its relationship to form, shape, line and, structure. Based in Ho Chi Minh City – the liveliest urban city in Vietnam – Ngo Dinh Bao Chau’s living environment is filled with manmade light and she is fascinated by its role in human forms of labor and urbanization.

Bao Chau’s works initially appear to be rigid, scientific and rational. Yet there exists a thematic poetic quality in her sculpture and lacquer paintings, evidenced in her 2 dimensional diamond and pentagon shaped lacquer works inspired by the shape of light as discussed in the scientific study of this material. Having researched the nature of ‘Platonic solids’ – whereby the geometric structure is divided into 5 distinct groups (tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, dodecahedron and icosahedron) – the artist became aware that the surface of these shapes differed in number which caused light to refract at differing intensities off differing materials. This led her to experiment with differing color and lacquer coatings to achieve maximum effect.

For this involvement with ‘San Art Productions x Phuong My’, Bao Chau is also inspired by the silk textile process, lured by the delicacy of light as it bounces off silk threads, as it is slowly released from the cocoon and stretched to produce a minuscule fiber. Indeed Bao Chau refers to her sculptural structures as cocoons of silk.

The game of light in Ngo Dinh Bao Chau’s exhibition corresponds to Phuong My’s 2013 Fall/Winter collection that complements with delicate pastels beneath strong angular line and bold monochrome color. Both Bao Chau’s artworks and Phuong My’s Fall/Winter fashion designs highlight the aesthetic of structure and the beauty to be found in its complexity.

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