MEMORIAL PROJECT NHA TRANG, VIETNAM: Towards the Complex-For the Courageous, the Curious and the Cowards (2001)

Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba Born in Japan now lives and works in Vietnam. His early works comprise of: works dealt with he life of the Vietnamese people.

The Work comprises of men who work in pairs moving the cyclos underwater. It shows there process of struggle consisting of pull, push and pedaling until once reaching the underground city in which is made from stretched out netting. The struggle increases as they get deeper whilst the trip to the surface takes longer and in-turn leading the cyclos to be abandoned.

The struggle of the cyclos is symbolic in the way that vietnamese people have had struggle with the process of modernization. I think this piece has a direct link back To the Enlightenment theory, that being of universalism and science. The idea that the world should all be similar and that things learnt can be applied any where around the world (Hamilton,1992). This specific example with the cyclos being upgraded to motor vehicles in, therefore helping Vietnam becoming more modernized in todays society. My views on this issue is that the improvements of science and technology is also in turn changing the culture and norms of the Vietnamese people such as the cyclo peddlers. The cyclo peddlers will lose their jobs along with the culture being nothing but a memory of the past. Now that vietnam is becoming more civilized and modern there has been a push for new machinery motor vehicle such as cars and taxis (http://sites.asiasociety.org/arts/nh/index.html).

The underwater town has link to the title as it can be seen as the under water town made by stretched out netting is a metaphorical metaphor for the many Vietnamese people who had drowned during the war (http://rickshawchallenge.com/tag/memorial-project-nha-trang). I think that the title reflects how Jun sees the Vietnamese people and society as still old and unmodernized. This can be seen with the use of cyclos and also using the contrast with the title and war as symbolically showing the struggle for the vietnamese people, even so back in the old days during the war.

Landscape and Sublime

1.What and when was the Enlightenment?

The 16th and 17th century was the period of time during where Enlightenment had arisen. It was a period of time where the population began to veer from the conservative views of church and its traditions, and began to explore the universe for-themselves making there own judgements and thoughts of their surroundings. As a result of the Enlightenment philosophies has arose being; Reason, Empiricism, Science, Universalism, Progress, Individualism, Toleration, Freedom, Uniformity of human Nature, and Secularism.

2.Define the concept of the Sublime.

is when something has the quality of greatness, whether being physical, moral, intellectual, metaphysical, aesthetic, spiritual, or artistic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sublime_(philosophy)). It can also be described as something that has that certain wow factor in which nothing can ever compare to.

3.How did the concept of the Sublime come out of the Enlightenment thought?

When the concept of enlightenment came out man has started to explore the world. Therefore they started to make their own judgements and views of their surroundings. Because they had started to move away from the traditions and views of the church it had sparked thoughts that there is something of greatness out there in the world. This greatness was beyond all possibility of calculation, measurement or imitation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sublime_(philosophy)).

4.Discuss the subject matter, and aesthetic (look) of Misrach's work to identify the Sublime in his work. Add some more images.

American photographer Daniel Misrach is known for his photographs of human intervention in landscapes. One of his most recent works ‘On the Beach’ was done as series in which he used to show the beautiful landscape and mans complex relationship with it. ‘On the Beach’ had been inspired from the 911 attacks in which where taken directly afterwards. his works consist of large scaled photographs which are 6 by 12 feet, this allows you too see detailed expressions even a quarter of a mile out of sea dgashdhasdfgasfdgh. The photographs “ at first glance its people on the beach, frolicking in the water were used to seeing things like that in travel magazines” hdasdhjgasdgjasdgjh. He was very careful in the choosing of the pictures to give that sense of ambiguity, so that you look at them and think, “maybe some of them are not to safe after all”. the ocean was used metaphorically to show the ocean as the unknown. This really identifies the sublime as we are in awe of it beauty and are unaware of how dangerous and scary it can be (http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/26514/richard-misrach/).

5.Identify some other artists or designers that work with ideas around the Sublime, from the Enlightenment era as well as contemporary artists.

Andreas Gursky- Known for his architectural landscape photography (above)

François Boucher, The Triumph of Venus, 1740 (above)

6.How does Misrach's photography make you feel? Does it appeal to your imagination?

Misratchs photography at first gave me the impression of beauties of nature in which we interact with. But once looking closer (especially the cover photo of ‘On the Beach’) is gave me an unease feeling of that of no control of what could happen. The ocean is an unknown territory to most humans and is not exactly an environment in which we feel as comfortable as on ground. there is a feeling off unknown such as creatures. This appeals to my imagination as the cover picture almost makes me feel as if a shark or creature could just pop up and get him unexpectedly. My mind also thinks that there is a strong sense of lack of control and that anything can happen without being able to calculate it.

7.Add a Sublime image of your choice to your blog, which can be Art or just a Sublime photograph.