Paper Cages II (2002)

I make drawings of café interiors and street kitchens in ballpoint on giay do (traditionally made rice paper). Old men drinking and serving ca phe den (strong black coffee), young women waiting plastic tables in gia khat (restaurant). I transfer the sketches to larger sheets (80cm x 60cm) using ink.

I overlay these, in the studio, with a further layer of giay do, containing one separate image of simple recurrent objects in pagodas, such as prayer flags, wall fans, candlesticks, coffee cups. I apply one prayer, dinh (shrine) money and a pictogram stamp, lifted from modern packaging, to complete the composition. Each piece is mounted between glass and backlit

please choose an image from the left to see a larger version.

Eating and praying are the two most common forms

of worship; both are carried out in virtual silence.