Its almost as if it is a ghost town with the blue tinted look of the water and the still/slow images of the fishermen. 'I wanted to create a cyclo museum. That idea actually led me to this video. Cyclos are still refurbished if anyone needs them fixed; however, this happens less and less'
So in fact, Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba was stearing towards this style even before he started to create the work.
Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba’s video work, Memorial Project Nha Trang, Vietnam: Towards the Complex—For the Courageous, the Curious, and the Cowards, was first video work and offers captivating images of local fishermen pulling cyclo underwater toward an area where the artist had about thirty stretched out mosquito nets across the sea bed. The cyclos, deep underwater, represent the weight of tradition and reference Vietnam’s historical past in the context of the country’s struggle with the processes of modernization.
This piece of work could almost be said to be about modernism, with the decline in the use of veitnams unique transportation device, the cyclo, Nguyen-Hatushiba seeks to immortalise the vehicle in their work. Like a statement against Modernism, saying that progress is not necessary in some cases and if it continues at this rate, Vietnam could lose an important cultural icon.
His work has a very spiritual connection to many things beyond his work. He mentioned that he got a supernatural feeling when filming this, 'I remember getting goose bumps looking down at the bottom of the ocean where we had placed the mosquito nets. I interpret goose bumps as an interaction with the supernatural.'
So the title has its hidden meanings in relation to the work, ‘Towards the Complex-For the Courageous, the Curious and the Cowards’ this title could mean many things, ‘Courageous' symbolizes the cyclos riders for carrying on their cultural tradition even though they know they will struggle along the path to bring back the 'cyclos' heading towards the complex filled with 30 mosquito nets this depicts the safe haven from modernisation. ‘Curious’ describes the audiences reaction towards this bizzare sight of underwater cyclos. ‘Cowards’ is refering to the people who have struggled to hold on to their traditions in order to adapt new eras of technologies and ways of life.
Another way of looking at how fast technology changes (if you read the interview with JNH again) is by how often JNH changes his tools (cameras). He started with a “Sony single CCD miniDV video camera” - a camera considered “a toy by todays filmmaking standards” - and then progressed to higher quality cameras from the first when making additional videos, then for his forth video he “upgraded to a 3CCD camera.”
ReplyDeleteAs said by JNH “Technology keeps moving forward and sometimes it can get in the way.” Which is exactly what he has protrayed here, through his under water video of the cyclos and the vietnamese men operating them.