Tử Mộc Trà, whose real name is Phạm Thùy Dương, is a young artist born and raised in Hanoi. Her artistic pursuit was nurtured by an innate sense of creativity, family traditions, and her time spent on the road traveling.
I discovered Dương for the first time as part of the “Chúng ta đang nghịch gì?” art exhibition (What are we tricking?) held at the Vincom Center for Contemporary Art in 2021. Amongst 125 diverse artworks, ‘Sợi vàng’ by Tử Mộc Trà was a tale told via a quotidien palette that was more rustic and understated than the others.
‘Sợi vàng’ was inspired by linen, a crude but precious material made by H’Mông people. Weaving linen requires much hand labor and attention to detail, but the resulting product is breathy on hot days, and warming on cold nights.
'Sợi vàng.'
“I was enthralled by the colors, designs, and techniques of the incredible level of details of beeswax drawings handmade by H’Mông artisans,” Dương explains the inspiration behind the work, the image of a spinning wheel and how it forms a sheet of linen fabric.
‘Sợi vàng’ is an important piece making up the artistic identity of Dương, “Tử Mộc Trà.” Following many excursions to the highlands, Dương collected many stories of the land from sketches and local materials she sampled. These tales were “retold” onto a number of mediums like paper and textile, forming a more multidimensional creation than installation artworks. Her art is characterized by a blend of different cultural influences, including analog printing techniques and other traditional crafts like dyeing, embroidery, and appliqué.
An astronaut in the universe of materials
Dương’s knack for creativity surfaced when she was little and had a chance to encounter a plethora of different art forms. Her family has been in the textile trade for generations: her grandfather is a tailor while her mother and aunt are fabric vendors. As natural as being, she formed a bond with textile and started gaining experience the same way an apprentice seamstress would. “It was an atmosphere of familial labor, constant interactions, and sensing of our family material,” she reminisces.
Tử Mộc Trà with her artwork ‘Thoi đưa’ at an exhibition at the VCCA.
Dương’s journey toward professional art practice began at a tuition class to prepare aspiring students for the entrance exam of the Vietnam University of Fine Art. Learning here gave her the knowledge she needed and a respect for the craft. Her outside-the-box way of thinking was honed through interactions while studying at the space. There, with the aid of paper and pens, she really discovered her own path.
Then, with each field trip and personal travel to the mountainous region, Dương’s creative spark for these materials grew stronger. Her pieces often explore subjects relating to linen, weaving, knitting, other handmade trinkets from the northwestern area, as well as other quotidien objects like pebbles.
‘Tơ.’
“Those visuals are really spectacular and romantic! Besides farming on terraced fields, local women enjoy spinning wheels on the hillside, meticulously treasuring the legacy of their ancestors. I also got to see firsthand how Mông and Dao artisans apply the indigo dyeing technique and make brocade using colorful patterns,” she shares.
“One time I was up there during Tết, so even though winter had gone, the gale was lingering. The early morning dew floated downhill, coating the village and the blue dawn. Amid that ambiance, twirls of silvery clouds hugged the mountain foot, enchanting my eyesight,” Dương explains.
Printing works.
Recreating reality from introspection
“I don’t like just standing there looking at a framed painting,” Dương tells me. Installation work, according to her, is not just putting objects in a physical space, it is also a dialogue between the creator, the created work, and the audience. In an installation work, the concept, the narrative and the materials combine in a freeing space that’s both different and evocative.
‘Lặp.’
A trip to Du Già Village in Hà Giang Province made Dương realize many things about the textile trade. Contrary to common beliefs, the members of the H’Mông community here don’t just dress in brocade dresses, belts and aprons, but also nylon clothing items in bright colors.
Over time, traditions like weaving and linen dyeing are not being passed down enough as they call for high levels of precision and flair. Thankfully, older artisans are still continuing that craft, but often not to make clothes. They create raw, undyed linen to bundle up newborn babies or pad the insides of coffins.
Details of ‘Thoi đưa.’
Moved by the cultural shift, Dương created ‘Thoi đưa.’ The artpiece reimagines a breathtaking Du Già, where the shuttle still holds fast to traditional looms and threads, but is missing part of the H’Mông people’s rich past. ‘Thoi đưa’ was made from sculpted wood and cyanotype-dyed fabric. Besides, the work features a large-scale mirror and pebbles to evoke the mountainous landscape.
In the piece, Dương re-envisions what she experienced and witnessed in sketches and prints and sculpted the scenes on the materials before arranging them into a complete entity. Working with textile was different thanh with paper; textile is thicker and more elastic, requiring more attention during the printing process to ensure that the ink flows the way Dương intended.
Cyanotype-dyed textile.
“It was a risk to print,” Dương recalls. “At times, [the colors] turned out more gorgeous and stable than I expected. When I do paintings, I only have to wash pens and brushes, but doing it this way, there are so many other items like rollers, printing plates, and palettes; not to mention that the more colors are involved, the more complex the process is.”
Cultural preservation is no cakewalk
From artworks like ‘Lặp’ — which earned her an award at the Young Art Festival 2022 — to ‘Sợi vàng’, each creation by Tử Mộc Trà has its own story to tell. That could be the traditional weaving techniques of an ethnic minority community in Sủng Là (Hà Giang Province) or the dynamic fabric and handmade trinket trade at Bắc Bà Market (Lào Cai Province), or just simply the beauty of tiny creeks and foliage.
‘Thoi đưa’ depicts the landscapes of a mountainous commune.
After decades, due to many reasons, ethnic customs might transform and develop to adapt to new realities. It’s most worrying when some face the risk of obsolescence and loss of distinctive features. Through her installation works, Dương wants to introduce the beauty and core values of some of these customs: “Preserving cultural traits of ethnic minorities is not something to take lightly, as only they, who have lived and bonded with them, can call the shots on whether they should be continued. I can only spread the words and retain what I’ve experienced and seen to present it in an artistic way.”
‘Dệt.’
When asked if she feels worried about diving into this interesting but sensitive realm, Dương is quite assured: “I just do it, I don’t overthink it! Sometimes things we don’t think too much about have their beauty. I don’t delve too deep or pressure myself to know everything in detail. I simply admire its beauty and delight, and I want to recreate that.”
Over her many trips up and down the mountainside to refresh, meet new cultural communities and interact with different materials, Dương’s creative identity slowly took shape. During those journeys, she became a storyteller, sketcher, and archivist and then an installer, helping the language of beauty become more accessible to Vietnam’s art-loving souls.
