Couple puts soul into fabric collages

Source of inspiration: Huu Ngoc, cultural researcher and former editor in chief of Le Courier du Viet Nam, looks at a portrait of himself made from fabric. — VNS Photos Thai Ha

At the end of Trieu Viet Vuong Street in Ha Noi's Hoan Kiem District is a house nearly 100 years old. I visit at lunchtime when the coffee shops and restaurants are heaving with customers. Yet, despite the activity on the street, the house is a haven of tranquility. It is here that husband and wife artists Pham Chinh Trung and Luu Thanh Ha live and work. Trung specialises in lacquer, while his wife makes collages from fabric.

As I enter the house I am struck by the strong smell of lacquer. The walls are lined with Trung's work, some completed, others still in progress.

I follow Ha up the stairs to the second floor where she displays her fabric mosaics, and am immediately taken aback by the intensity of her work: spiritual yet realistic, with a vibrancy of colour stemming from the artist's obvious love of nature.

Ha says each artwork requires glueing hundreds of pieces of coloured fabric to canvass or paper.

She shows me an album with photographs of some of her best works, which she exhibited between 1992-2009. They are almost without exception startling; more than mere mosaics or fabric art, they're poetic and sublime.

She says she began painting in the fourth grade. "I started going to art classes at Ha Noi Children's Palace because I loved painting very much, although no one in my family was an artist. I don't know why, I just loved to draw and paint."

She says her father was very supportive and would help her mix her own pigments. "Finding good colours was very hard. So when my father was cooking, he would use some of the water in the rice cooker to mix with pigments and make colours for me to paint with."

But then the war came and Ha's family were forced to evacuate Ha Noi. She missed out on school and art classes until she was 15 years old. It was then that a friend of her elder brother saw some of her paintings and persuaded her family to enroll her at Ha Noi College of Industrial Fine Arts. After passing the entrance examination, Ha enrolled at age 18 and soon discovered her love of fabrics.

"When I was a child, my parents were tailors. They made hats and children's clothes. So I was introduced to sewing at an early age."

She studied sewing her first year at college, and then in the second year began making fabric collages. She has been a professional artist for the last 34 years.

It was in 1992 that Ha found fame following the exhibition of her fabric mosaics and her hustband's lacquer paintings. "Many tourists wanted to buy my work but I couldn't bear to part with any of it."

Nguyen Van Chung, the former director of the Viet Nam Fine Arts Museum, says fabric mosaics are alluring and very moving.

"Using pieces of fabric to create a design can be intoxicating. Fabric mosaics captivate the onlooker."

Ha says she uses a variety of different fabrics in her work, though cotton is her prefered material because of its durability, versatilty, naturalness and ease of dyeing.

She says the subject of her works are in no way limited by the material she uses, and that she "paints" landscapes, portraits, even abstract art. In fact, she says fabric mosaics are easier to create than the more costly lacquer paintings. She also says that when mixing pigments for a lacquer painting, if she makes a mistake she has to start all over again, which further adds to the cost.

The spontaneity of creating in fabric is a draw for Ha, the suddeness of inspiration and the processes of the imagination. Her designs are created directly from the imagination, whether based on experience or thinking. A painting, on the other hand, is first sketched on the canvass.

The price of a fabric mosaic depends on the size, the complexity of the subject and the fabrics used. They cost between few hundred thousand dong to VND400 million (US$19).

"It can take anywhere from a week to a year to make fabric mosaic, with portraits and landscape being the most time consuming," Ha says.

As for the durablity of the fabric, she says the climate in Viet Nam can pose a challenge.

"I am still pondering that one," she admits. "Viet Nam has a tropical climate, and the humidity and heat can easily damage a fabric mosaic. And they are prone to mould if exposed to dampness for a period of time."

As for fastening the pieces of cloth to the canvass, Ha has even tried using industrial glue for its strength but found it changed the colours of the fabric. Instead, she uses the glue her father makes from boiling wheat and mixing it with termite and mould resistant chemicals. But, she says, it takes a long time to prepare the glue.

When the glue is made, the real work begins.

"Becoming a good fabric artist is very difficult. It takes years to perfect the technique, to say nothing of the of passion, life experience, imagination and persistance required."

But when it all comes together, she says there is nothing more rewarding than creating a wonderful fabric mosaic. Which is why she is keen to pass on her knowledge to youngsters at the Children's Palace.

"I want this artform to persist and develop. Yes it is difficult, but it is wonderful."

Ha even offers to teach me. "My husband and I will take you on as a student. The art of making collages and lacquer paintings needs to be preserved and developed. It would be a crying shame if the artforms were to die out."

I'm touched by the offer, but sadly, I can't draw for toffee. — VNS