Nhân chi sơ tính bổn thiện / The milk of human kindness

(2020)

15:00 mins

two channel video, color, sound

​

This video belongs to Xuân Hạ’s artistic project called ‘The white sand in exile’, which investigates the artist’s relationship to her hometown, Quảng Nam and Đà Nẵng, compelled by the issue of sand mining which became all the more apparent after she returned to her hometown after 8 years of living in Saigon. In her hometown, white sand is present in all facets of everyday life, a non-innocent material that has been witness to the life cycle of a grand scheme of things and people.

​

After all of her years spent away from home, while the endlessly long coast lined by white sand still bore the same look, each of the artist’s grandfathers breathed their last, to which the endless whiteness of the seashore provided a kind of solace. One day as the artist took a walk with her father on the beach, much to their surprise, glass bottles appeared at their feet. The two video screens rhythmically reveal the fragility of the life cycle of the glass bottles alongside that of the artist’ beloved family members.

​

Written by Van Do.

----

© 2019 Nguyen Vu Xuan Ha