Competition: Public Art Workshop | Type: Indoor mural art installation
Year: 2023 | Site: Khanh Hoa's Children's Cultural Youth Club (set to be completed in 2025)
Fairytales and folklore have been playing an inherently familiar yet pivotal part in one's early childhood growth and development thanks to the invaluable morals and lessons they bring. However, those values seem to be somehow dismissed and forgotten as people are no longer concerned about any childhood memories we grew up with over time. Regardless, the sentimental values embedded in these bedtime stories will always be preserved. There will still be people remembering those values and teaching them back to the younger generations because we all grown-ups were once children as well. Therefore, our group project wants to channel that spirit by bringing back those lost forgotten memories through the art created in our work for this 'Public Art Workshop' competition, called Parallel Universe.
Concept
The brief requires coming up with a pair of 9x4 meter public art mural designs, each located in the hallway of levels 1 and 2 of the club's auditorium, in which the idea must be responsive to the social and cultural context of the site, Nha Trang with its beautiful beaches and oceans.
Our idea envisions creating two interconnected art pieces that will formulate into one bigger picture when placing both of them on top of each other in order as a whole. Noting the idea of interconnections between the murals and the enriching coastal landscapes of Nha Trang city, the proposal takes on an interpretation of the imagery of Yin and Yang within the context of nature where the world we live in is mainly composed of the two types of landscape biomes: the oceans or the seas as the first layer, followed by the land consists of the forest and the mountains, all tied together by the horizons of the sky.
Story Dissection
Through the adventurous journey into the world of nature and long-gone childhood memories, each layer is embedded with elements of fairytales and folklore by mimicking the scenes of characters' actions based on some of the most famous Vietnamese folktales. These characters are selected solely based on their power and identity that align with the given context of nature, the earth, and the ocean.
Final Outcome
The first floor, with the idea of immersing oneself in the deep ocean, is composed of stories that are associated with the seas. This starts with the tale of the Children of the Dragon; the battle between the Mountain God and the Lord of the Waters Son Tinh Thuy Tinh; the love story of Mi Chau & Trong Thuy, with the tale of Magical Crossbow and the Turtle God of the Co Loa Citadel; or Cá Ông, the legendary whale of the Nha Trang coast.
Rising from the ocean comes the land and the sky on the second floor, the mural consists of many stories that align with the settings of the woods and the broad limitless sky. This includes the Golden Starfruit; Diary of the Cricket; Saint Giong - The Heavenly Prince of Phu Dong; the tale of Thach Sanh & Ly Thong, and lastly Chú Cuoi, the Man in the Moon and the Banyan Tree.
Rather than going with a regular type of mural with just a flat painted surface, the outcome takes inspiration from the small-scale light and shadow boxes where each laser-cut layer is distinctively lightened up using hidden LED light strips within every layer, creating a pop contrast of light and dark. Based on the core idea of nature and the different layers of the paper-cut art technique, the murals aim to take the beholders on a transient journey into nature as if they are walking into the forest or simply wandering around the screen of the aquariums.
Since the surrounding hallway where the mural will be placed is mainly colored with an earthy tone of terracotta, we want the installation to be submerged and blended within the context of the site using a similar but slightly more saturated palette of bright red and orange shades to make it more stand out and pop from the site. Also, the work proposes using corten, weathering steel, as the main materiality to evoke a rustic yet classic feel of texture, that matches the spirit of historical folktale perseverance and longevity.
Poster
Posters displayed at the workshop exhibition 'Sang Tao Tre'
Award
Ending my 4-month internship at Nha Vui XS Studio, our group projects were incredibly privileged and honored to earn ourselves two winning prize awards for our design competition entries: one 'First Place' Award for the Indoor Public Art, and one 'Most Favorite Public Votes' for the Outdoor Public Art on social media.
