The original grace is not defined by the golden ratio, or aesthetic curves available in nature. It is the grace in perception, in religion-related imagination, in the human subconscious trapped in modern society, separated from the source; causing the commonly assumed religious images to be often rigid and inflexible. That original grace is the dance of the soul. Wisdom and divinity lie within and beyond the graphic expression of religious symbols.
Religions together with their symbolic images, for Tâm Thị Minh Lê, are within prayers, and outside pages of prayer books, in her colourful strokes, like sharply moving lines of prayers cutting into the air. It is the levitation; dreams wrapped in prayers. They are thrown out at high speed of imagination, of sound, of light, of faith in miracles, clinging to the vast consciousness of the humane faith’s picture. Like letters on remained sandstone slabs of ancient civilizations, drifting on sandy shores. Each letter, each human’s head, each mind, shows us the World in each of our living cells, and each part of us in the World.
The nature of Buddhism in Tâm’s paintings lies in wild and primitive pieces of colours, harmoniously sinking into the magical primary surface of the Earth, evoking budding primeval forests, in the arising time of Shakyamuni Buddha, when His mother, the first monks and philosophers walked on empty sand slopes without a single person in sight; and also contrasting at the same time, with a bit of refinement and modernity in the polar pair of colours, evoking the concept of masculinity – femininity of the modern time.
The colour pieces are as sweet as primordial femininity, pure blue as the sky, not to mention the rational arrangement of shades from heavy to light, from thin to dense, from soaringly high to blazing deep. The random shapes of letter blocks create the optical illusion of the eyes, purposefully located in meaningful positions, suggesting an arrangement, an impact of the Creator’s hand from above, beyond the boundaries of all ordinary perspectives, in the repetitive realm of the Samsara.
The mystic nature that humanity has already forgotten is shown even more clearly in the next painting – the Cross on the black background. According to the author’s narrative, it is a symbol of God’s miracle for underdeveloped lands, specifically the colonies. Carrying within her a hidden part of Vietnam as her homeland, which was once a French colony in the North, and an American-occupied land in the South – her association with God are not just bright images of the Cross where luxury or comfort is common, but the brightest light, the greatest happiness and salvation of poor children and people in the colonies. In places considered the edges of the world, with the common voice marginalized in the whole picture of contemporary art, the Cross image appears, messianic and at the same time implicitly contradictory on the hidden memories’ foundation of history: people in the name of enlightenment and civilization, holding Crosses in their hands, carried out repressions, wars and exploitation.
That black background can only be lit up, repelled, by a Cross in the most awakened imagination, reaching closest to the primordial idol of God. It is a Cross without the elaborated and sophisticated carvings commonly seen in formal ceremonies; it is a rustic Cross with countless brilliant colours of vibrant tropical countries. It is the Cross that witnessed the joy, tears, laughter, and even blood of souls and bodies, old and young, falling in the darkness, their hands reaching out to God. Souls flew up, bright flames of falling bombs and whizzing bullets – Tâm witnessed, endured, remained silence, prayed, and even fiercely fought and healed all of them. The Witness and Saviour – Jesus – within her is One, incarnates, embodies, patiently and courageously radiates the Light of the Kingdom of Heaven, to places beyond the civilized social norms, but the vivid presence of that background brings a deep and chilling epic quality.
Contrary to the popular imagination of a Saviour’s image in a human form, with a bright and radiant face; the Light in Tâm Thị Minh Lê’s paintings evokes God as an image of a male brimming with primitiveness, with one of the highest expressions of power lying in the naked display of the body including the genitalia – something that is not inherently considered sacred in common culture.
But let’s ask ourselves: how many people are honest enough to truly appreciate all the human body parts as if they were God’s creation, let them be, express them, and be naturally confident about them? If it is not an expression of love, faith, gratitude and courage for God, then what is it? Isn’t it a form of expression of strength? How many people can realize the spiritual power and divinity in mating and reproductive activities, which are the peak of inner healing, of merged universal force in the form of energy integration, of oneness, of complete self-acceptance, confidence, love and understanding, and the following process to apply it to the other? The genitalia in this case is merely a mean of union with the Divine, and the Divine expression, being brought closer to us, in an earthly image.
The Saviour most likely took an appearance like ours, so that He could become closer to us, understand us, and save our intrinsically mortal and heavy bodies.
To conclude, I would like to quote the name of one of my favourite book entitled “All the rivers flow”. We are always in a dynamic state of the flow of time, constantly moving forward to new directions and distant lands, but we forget that when reaching the sea, in order not to be dissolved, we need to remember the Source. It is not a place filled with bright urban lights with vanity, fancy elaborate beauty – it is the energy mass of a giant rough primitive biological body, in Love and Truth sparklingly illuminated by the ultimate Light of God.
As a long-time spiritual researcher and practitioner, Tâm Thị Minh Lê with her colourful imagination and dreamy perspective with the breath of Oriental meditation brings us to religious images outside the norms, unlimited in space and time, thereby she expands the outlook on the spiritual world, contributing a path to find the sacredness – primality in the origin. These connections are the forgotten values that bring unexpected happiness in a contemporary society that praises progressiveness and fragility.
