Both come to pottery, kneading from clay and transforming in fire to “cook the spirit” bringing tradition to the contemporary.
Love pottery with all my heart
The ceramic shapes, ceramic glazes, ceramic ideas… whether familiar or strange, all connect the two creative styles of the two artists into a journey through the ceramic land full of excitement, adventure and responsibility.
Familiar with the thousand-year-old material of ceramic, but conveying on it folk culture, from the beliefs of the three palaces - four palaces, the sacred animals in the sacred temples of Vietnam, familiar in the warm colors of the brown glaze color evoking a thousand-year history of Vietnamese ceramics under the Ly - Tran dynasties when the pure Vietnamese ceramic line was born with the unique technique of making brown ceramics.
Strange with its unique shapes, having form but seemingly invisible, borrowing the soil, borrowing the culture - customs - rituals - life of the Muong land ( Hoa Binh ) to lead everything into the contemporary, through pottery, enough for the viewer to pause for a moment, question, contemplate, and then burst out when seeing in the strange shape many familiar features.
Those familiar and strange things appear together at an interesting cultural meeting place. Amidst the busy year-end atmosphere, with people and vehicles passing by, looking forward to a family reunion during Tet, the pottery is present not as if it is just for people to look at and admire.
But simply, pottery stands there as it did thousands of years ago, but because of the world's indifference, we sometimes forget that there is pottery in this world. Pottery originates from our ancestors, from the extremely difficult yet also regal life of the Vietnamese people.
While life has many modern conveniences and options, the presence of ceramics seems redundant! But it is not. In a forest of 4.0 conveniences, ceramics stand out like pure gold, like a wild and ecstatic flower among artificial flowers.
Vu Duc Hieu is known by his stage name “Hieu Muong”, who has brought Muong culture and Muong heritage into every stroke of pottery, color of pottery or shape of pottery. Not only recreating Muong cultural life with the Lang family, he also brings Muong everywhere – as if to say “let’s keep what is about to be lost”. And pottery is a choice for him to convey the cultural soul, the sentiment of heritage, the voice of the nation.
Next to Vu Duc Hieu is the person who goes deep into history – artist Trinh Vu Hieu. Searching for the hidden things mixed in the ashes of thousands of years, ancient ceramics appear in contemporary forms, carrying the soul of folklore. The drawings on ceramics and the ceramic glaze do not “go far away” from history but blend into contemporary ceramics to tell the story of the golden past.
It all started in 2014, two artists with the same name met by chance. They were attached to pottery from the bottom of their hearts, kneading clay, shaping pottery, burning in fire and waiting through the cold late nights to see the shadow of heritage.
The quick 10-year play with earth and fire – a period long enough in a short human life, and even more mature in the artistic life of an artist, has partly described the creative character, to spread beautiful stories about culture and history to pottery lovers, and even those who do not understand enough to love pottery.
"Muong filial piety" with Muong pottery
In August 2024, artist Vu Duc Hieu introduced to the public of the capital a unique ceramic line called "Muong Ceramics" at space number 85 Nhat Chieu (Tay Ho, Hanoi) in a very short period of only 2 days.
Since 2007, Vu Duc Hieu has created the Muong Cultural Space at 202 Tay Tien Street, Hoa Binh City (Hoa Binh Province), in the form of the first private museum to preserve and introduce the Muong ethnic cultural space in Vietnam. The important milestone in the artist's ceramic journey was September 2014, with the birth of Muong Studio and Muong Ceramic Workshop, creating a special playground for domestic and foreign artists to create with ceramics.
Through many years of research, learning from artisans, and many field trips, learning about famous ceramic regions across the country: Bat Trang (Hanoi), Phu Lang (Bac Ninh), Huong Canh (Vinh Phuc), Chu Dau ( Hai Duong ), Bien Hoa (Dong Nai)... Vu Duc Hieu has created a ceramic quality, a very unique ceramic spirit that everyone lovingly identifies with the name: Muong Ceramics.
At that unique pottery workshop, termite soil, clay, ash glaze ingredients, accessories... from the native land of the Muong people, have created a unique pottery color that is perhaps associated with the stage name "Hieu Muong".
The great achievement after his training and creative work is probably the Jeonju International Awards 2020 organized by Korea, to encourage and promote activities to promote, preserve and conserve intangible cultural heritage around the world.
The award recognizes that the Muong Cultural Space Museum of artist Vu Duc Hieu can be considered a model activity for preserving the culture of ethnic minorities, aiming to support ethnic minority groups to affirm their cultural identity, establishing a harmonious cultural diversity of each country.
The unique point and also the identifying point of Muong pottery is in the shape and form. Artist Vu Duc Hieu believes that the world of Muong artifacts has directly influenced the perception and aesthetics in the process of collecting artists. The influence of Muong culture is the source of inspiration that guides the creative thinking as a source of emotions rich in expressing the fertility of biological structure, evoking primitive symbols.
Art researcher Vu Huy Thong looked at Vu Duc Hieu's ceramic artifacts and came to the conclusion that Muong ceramics mainly have rough surfaces, brown, yellow, indigo, and green tones. These color combinations are the result of a long process of research and experimentation with traditional organic glaze (ash glaze) mixing formulas and some common inorganic substances in modern ceramic glaze making techniques.
Ceramic bones, thanks to the use of termite soil, sometimes combined with Samot soil, allow Vu Duc Hieu to fire at high temperatures the complex shapes of the sculptural language and create a ceramic surface rich in natural emotions. With Muong ceramics, Vu Duc Hieu first created many unique and individual sculptures, then made an effort to honor traditional culture in general, Muong culture in particular.
History - folk culture on pottery
Along with Vu Duc Hieu, someone who shares the same creative aspirations is artist Trinh Vu Hieu - an interior designer, a painter with abstract paintings, then switched to making fine art ceramics.
His creative journey is like a very natural and simple change, without any constraints, forced or constrained, it feels like a leisurely stroll from which to create works of art with a strong contemporary imprint.
Trinh Vu Hieu's first exhibition in 2016 was about brown flower ceramics, with creative inspiration from ancient ceramic artifacts from the Ly - Tran dynasties, a concrete example of a leisurely stroll, without pressure or constraint.
“I love brown flower ceramics in terms of shape and creative ideas. When looking at the ceramics, one can immediately guess the spirit and lifestyle of the ancients. From the peace of a stable society in the Ly Dynasty, ceramic works with optimistic patterns, delicate and airy lines, to the strong and powerful wrestling and hunting themes of the Tran Dynasty - all appear on ceramics. I borrow that spirit to create brown flower ceramics with my own style, expressing techniques, thoughts, and decorations according to my own aesthetic layout in each period and each artifact,” artist Trinh Vu Hieu shared.
In the art world, Trinh Vu Hieu is an adventurous player, always looking for new inspirations and languages for his works. Coming to pottery, from a person who did not know the profession, he was willing to learn, until he was satisfied with the skills of an artisan - artist. Up to now, he has shaped a pottery workshop, personally completing the stages of a professional potter.
In 2021, at the VCCA Contemporary Art Center, Trinh Vu Hieu surprised everyone with his contemporary ceramic installation titled “Loong Koong”. With the desire to preserve traditional cultural values, he combined Hang Trong folk paintings with ceramics to create ceramic products that are applicable in modern life.
If Hang Trong paintings are fragile and mysterious with information about beliefs, worship, festivals... transmitted and depicted on a flat surface, with basic colors that easily fade over time; then ceramics are sustainable and everlasting, are existing blocks, open spaces with diverse artistic nature and high applicability.
Choosing the inherent strengths and weaknesses of paintings and ceramics, Trinh Vu Hieu approached by blending the two materials of ceramics and Hang Trong paintings into one. This combination created a strange dance for viewers to see how cultural - historical - artistic values have existed, have harmonized, and have become alive in the contemporary context.
Artist Le Thiet Cuong believes that Trinh Vu Hieu’s pottery is “art pottery”, expressing the independence of the work when placed in life and full of aesthetics, a beautiful balance between the old and the new. If you listen to the new glaze, the carvings on the pottery and the flow of history of folk culture, you will see that “Loong Koong” pottery is a dialogue between tradition and modernity.
Researcher Phan Cam Thuong also said that Vietnam has had many artists using ceramic materials to create art, but contemporary ceramic art is a difficult field and there are few successful artists. Trinh Vu Hieu had to pay a very high price for many years and spent a lot of effort to bring the aesthetic element into traditional functional ceramics.
From the beginning of the idea to the creation of the first product, the artist had to explore, struggle, exchange many values both spiritual and material and had to overcome many difficulties to have the work in shape as it is now. Besides technical skills, there is also the translucent glaze that the artist covers the drawing - a big step forward compared to traditional glazes.
“I have participated in many international art programs, and realized that telling cultural stories through art is the fastest and most effective approach. When people watch artists create, they themselves also improve their view of art and aesthetics, helping them approach other cultures.
The same goes for international artists. Through the locals, they understand the local culture better. One advantage of art events at the Muong Cultural Space is that domestic artists do not need to travel far but still have the opportunity to exchange and discuss their profession with international artists, which is a bridge leading to many other art activities," said artist Vu Duc Hieu.
Source: https://giaoducthoidai.vn/10-nam-ton-vinh-di-san-tu-dat-va-lua-post714552.html
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