Mixed-media installation (traditional lacquer altar-niche, photograph of a scar, personally collected photographs). Dimensions variable.

Description

The exhibition run of the work in Berlin in 2015 coincided with Germany’s commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II and Vietnam’s celebrating the 30th anniversary of its reunification. Both nations organized grand ceremonies to commemorate war, but Vietnam being the winner in its war boasted its glorious victory over the US and South Vietnam; meanwhile, the West spoke of their war-inflicted sorrow and poignantly expressed their sentiments of loss that remained pensive and smoldering.

Please, Don’t make me up is a personal perspective on postwar socio-political consciousness, likened to the gesture of applying lipstick to a scar. War is akin to a scar etched by the past, demanding man’s recognition and acknowledgement; yet, the victor applies lipstick on the scar in ostentatious and inane commemoration of it.

Description by ViAA based on materials provided by the artist.