Enduring Carvings

Enduring Carvings are a series of carved woodblocks mounted on canvas created by artist Nguyen Huu Tram Kha. The round blocks are intricately carved with ornate patterns, some of the wood pieces are themselves printed on and layered with threaded white line-work forming into a lace-like delicacy.

The canvas is raw and unbleached, reminiscent of rough calico cotton, an empty foundation for ornamentation. The canvas complements the wood blocks in a pairing that is at once calling on the history of hand printing patterns on fabric and more vividly, on a world pre-industrialization. What we are left with are frozen potentials of the woodblocks having been activated by the artists hand, the carved patterns and linework facing away from its seemingly intended blank surface that it is mounted on.

The paintings exist as decorated ephemera and provide a stark commentary on the state of contemporary painting, art making, labor, trade and market. This allows a generous opening for the viewer to bring their own history to the paintings and at the same time demands that the viewer take a critical position within the material world.