Memorial Flowers, 2019

Chrysanthemum, fabric flowers,

water hyacinth, bamboo, graveyard’s

sand & time

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This installation was in Month of Arts Practice 2019 by Heritage Space Hanoi under the theme ‘Beyond Destruction’.

I created a time-based installation inspired by traditional Vietnamese funeral-flower arrangement, in which flowers are positioned on a bamboo and water hyacinth structure. However, in ‘Memorial Flower’, the visual motif was altered. I arranged both natural and synthetic flowers according to my drawing of an imaginary flora’s funeral.

Factually, in every Vietnamese funerals, depending on each family's financial condition, several to a large number of funeral flower rings are used. Nowadays, they are made of both natural and man-made, non-recyclable materials.

With this work, I wanted to question the frivolity of human’s rituals and ceremonies in times of environmental and climate crisis. In a way, how we memorize one's existence and passing on Earth is a threat to the well-being of our very planet. This contradiction is visualized in the unsually hollow parts of this flower arrangement, seemingly depicting a threshold between two sides of the paradox. Last but not least, this ecological contradiction between nature, human and religion was subtly addressed through my performative act of watering the chrysanthemums during the exhibiting days.