Reflections on the exhibition "Lands of Memories"

Lands We Remember – The Lands We Remember – A Journey of Karmic Wanderings by the Artist from Xứ Nẫu, Đặng Mậu Tựu, with Huế and the Land of the Kiwi

A fated encounter is an inexplicable feeling between one person and another, between human beings and the lands they set foot on. It is as if a game has already been arranged by God, and from that point on, a place where one was neither born nor raised comes to become one’s second homeland.

Artists are people who always carry within them a wandering spirit, a longing to go, to see new lands, in search of creative inspiration. Đặng Mậu Tựu, like any other creative worker, desires to explore the beautiful natural world of heaven and earth, rivers and mountains, where he lives, where he has been, whether near or far, far or even farther away, or even across the ocean in the land of the Kiwi. New Zealand is the place that gave him, an artist originally from Xứ Nẫu, Bình Định (now Gia Lai, Vietnam), the karmic opportunity to experience and become deeply attached.

When speaking of Đặng Mậu Tựu’s journeys, one must first mention Huế. With Huế, from life to creative career, it has been inseparable from the story of the painter. The next journey bound by fate is his strange encounter with a country across the ocean, New Zealand, a small, beautiful, gentle, and poetic land, as reflected in its Māori name, Aotearoa - The Land of the Long White Cloud. This was also the theme of Đặng Mậu Tựu’s first exhibition in Huế after his first return from the land of the Kiwi.

Lands We Remember is the next exhibition that continues to connect this story of a strange reunion, following the many months during which the artist nurtured the idea and aspired to realize it in New Zealand, as he shared. The exhibition Lands We Remember, featuring 30 artworks by Đặng Mậu Tựu, received suggestions, support, and organizational assistance from Viet Hub NZ, a Vietnamese community group in New Zealand that connects and supports overseas Vietnamese while promoting the beauty of Vietnamese culture to international friends.

The exhibition The Lands We Remember takes place exactly during the Vietnamese Lunar New Year. For Đặng Mậu Tựu, Huế remains his second homeland. Perhaps for that reason, he selected works and descriptions such as A Branch of Spring and Huế Landscapes, portraying them as “a springtime stroll of young women in Huế under bright sunshine and vibrant floral colors.” Stories of traditional Vietnamese cultural beauty in Huế are also depicted, such as the Vu Lan Festival on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, or the Mid-Autumn Festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, in the artwork The Girl and the Paper Lanterns.

Next come everyday stories, ordinary portraits that he has preserved in his consciousness, along with personal, inspiration-filled memories of the place where he was born and raised: Bình Định – Xứ Nẫu, as he once mentioned through places such as Tân Thành Beach, Mỹ An, and Đề Gi Lagoon. The two paintings The Fisherman Returning and The Fisherwoman are also created with a balance of warm and cool tones, expressing the sincere and simple emotions of an artist who has set foot in many remembered lands.

Alongside several works that carry existential qualities drawn from human stories, desires, and hopes, such as The Prayer of the Destitute on Christmas Night, and others that are profound and deeply contemplative, philosophical reflections on existence and the workings of the universe, such as The Mutual Generation of the Five Elements, there are also everyday sketches of the image of the Mother, rendered with great sacredness in works like The Warmth of Maternal Love and The Happiness of Romantic Love.

Most of the works in this exhibition by painter Đặng Mậu Tựu are executed in acrylic on canvas. The Lands We Remember also reveals a resonance in the beauty of indigenous cultures between the Land of the Kiwi and Vietnam. More specifically, this is seen in his exploration of Māori wooden sculptures alongside wooden statues of ethnic communities in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, and in his sharing of their meanings as “…guardians of souls and protectors of deities; I see beauty in every way people think about humanity, and the sacredness within each belief brings peace of mind to the living.”

Đặng Mậu Tựu, though an artist originating from Xứ Nẫu (present-day Gia Lai), has been closely connected to Huế for nearly his entire life. The interaction between these two remembered lands, Huế and New Zealand, is carefully arranged by him in emotional harmony, creating a strange connection akin to karmic fate. The Land of the Kiwi, with its beautiful nature, has further opened and enriched his soul with many new emotions, even when he happened to encounter a Kiwi girl in Waterloo, leaving a deep impression. He shared this interaction through the two artworks The Girl I Met in Waterloo and The Sunlit Garden: “I painted a garden in Huế when I was passing through a park in Waterloo – Lower Hutt; such wonderful light, I painted it as if I were bringing it back to Huế. A few young women appear sitting and chatting, it feels truly poetic. Both lands are beautiful to me.”

One can see that the overarching panorama of this exhibition by Đặng Mậu Tựu is a reunion encompassing all four seasons, spring, summer, autumn, and winter, and the strange interaction among The Lands We Remember, along with stories that connect humanity, nature, the world, and the universe. Some other artworks delve deeply into the inner thoughts and familiar solitude of those engaged in creative work, ultimately leading to the act of Returning to Oneself.

Every year in Huế, at the artist’s home near the Như Ý River, a personal exhibition themed around the zodiac is often held as a spontaneous artistic play. In the Bính Ngọ year of 2026, in The Lands We Remember exhibition held for the first time in New Zealand, images of the seventh zodiac animal (according to the twelve earthly branches) are also indispensable. The two artworks featuring this zodiac animal were selected for exhibition: The Year of the Horse, expressing an emotional connection inspired by the artist’s encounter with horses peacefully grazing in a field on a farm in Lower Hutt, as he shared; and The Herd Gathering, depicting herds of horses with the meaning of unity and mutual support, inspired by the proverb, “When one horse is in pain, the whole stable stops eating.”

Trần Băng Khuê