Hien Cao Art

* Struggling for the land The work ' Struggling for the land, (2021)' is composed of a series of photos of Palestinian hands holding the land they love. The images were expressly taken at my request. The Palestinian struggle has great support from the Independence Catalans and the Irish Republicans. This caught my attention so I asked my classmate Tala (a Palestinian student) if her relatives and friends could email pictures of their hands holding the soil they love, and they would die fighting for. Embroidered by machine, the threads of different shades of brown interpret the earth that they cling to and the red threads recall the lives lost, the blood spilt by the dispute and that inevitably slip through the fingers. A racial struggle that calls into question law and morality, turning those who still consider themselves victims into becoming executioners. January 27 is the International Day of Commemoration of the Holocaust, where mourning and the memory of Nazi terror take ...

* Self-portrait 5-year-old 'Self-portrait' embroidered by hand with black thread without any certain direction, they come and go at random. The intertwined threads build a perfect tangle, shaping the face of an innocent and naive girl at a time of great change in her life. (Size: 25x35.5x1cm)

* The Role of… The work 'The Role of…' On many occasions, the judicial powers are mixed with the political powers and vice-versa. The separation of powers doesn't exist and in most cases, politicians are judged under a political tendency.

* Crossing to the other shore 'Crossing to the other shore, (2021)' To understand the structures of society and human behaviour, many authors use the beehive as an anthropological analysis. In "The Hive: The Story of the Honeybee and Us (2004)", Bee Wilson notes that “the beehive has been, in turn, monarchical, oligarchic, aristocratic, constitutional, imperial, republican, absolute, moderate, communist, anarchist and even fascist. However, never democratic.” The piece "Crossing to the other shore, (2021)" is a textile latex structure imitating the perfect geometric shapes of the beehive. The cloth damaged, torn and creasing, it evokes the worn nations, deteriorated by patriarchal laws, conflicts and forced migrations. The choice of latex is due to the similarity of appearance it has with human tissue. Anne Hamlyn pointed out that the clothes are “surrogate skin, a body at one remove." The skin is the largest bodily organ. By using the animal's ski...

* The First Stitch 'The First Stitch, (2021)' represents the two shirts sewn by Hien's mother. They were one of the few things her mother was able to take with her when Hien’s family fled their home country because of war. Clothing is not frivolous. It can reveal a true reality, lived experiences that surround our bodies, our lives, our identity. It helps us to create memories that are important to us. Threads and seams explain how her mother managed to fix one of the ripped shirts with what little they had in the refugee camp in the Philippines. These shirts evoke lived experiences, the origins of her culture and at the same time reveal her Vietnamese identity. The fabrics used to make the shirts were made in Vietnam and so she can boast that these two pieces of clothing represent the authenticity of a lost but not forgotten identity. “Hien’s mother portrait” The portrait of Hien’s mother done by a sewing machine recalls the image of a young Vietnamese woman deeply immers...