kude.punny

The builders of “pottery road”

VietNamNet Bridge – Joel Bennett, lecturer at the US’ Santa Rosa Junior Art University in California, has come to Vietnam for the ‘pottery road’ project. The husband of painter Nguyen Thu Thuy has to bury his ‘passion’ – old cars – to serve his wife’s project.

Arriving at Bat Trang pottery village these days, asking for the road to the pottery painting station for the Red River dike path, locals will immediately introduce the Son Ha pottery enterprise.

At the enterprise, journalist-painter Nguyen Thu Thuy and her collaborators (sculptor Do Quoc Vi, a lecturer at the Industrial Art University and some members of the Hanoi Young Painters’ Club) are passionately creating designs for the first pottery paintings for the Red River dike road.

American artist comes to Vietnam for the pottery road

Among artists who are working in Bat Trang these days to prepare for the pottery road project is a US man whose clothes are always smeared with clay, like his Vietnamese colleagues. That’s Joel Bennett, a lecturer at Santa Rosa Junior Art University in California, who came to Bat Trang in early May to assist with the pottery road project.

Invited to participate in this ambitious project, Bennett at first couldn’t imagine how the road would be decorated. But walking on the dike road, one side of which is the Red River and the other side, peaceful Hanoi city, with the eyes of an experienced pottery artist he was able to envision the wall.

Bennett visited Bat Trang pottery village to see pottery products produced by traditional techniques and he couldn’t hide his love for the pottery items with the cobaltic colour of the village. Bennett is now very busy with his job at the pottery enterprise in Bat Trang and Thuy and her husband have to bring clothes and belongings to Bat Trang for Bennett.

Bennett has taken part in a series of pottery exhibitions named “Summer Meeting” in Vietnam. In 2005, Bennett, a Cuban sculptor and Vietnamese sculptor Do Quoc Vi participated in a stone sculpture camp in Viet Tri City, Phu Tho Province of Vietnam and organised a stone exhibition in Bat Trang Village.

Bennett said that he loved Vietnam and respected President Ho Chi Minh. He was arrested for two days in 1969 when he demonstrated against the Vietnam War.

In his first visit to Vietnam in 1992, Bennett paid a condolence visit to President Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum. The organisation of an exhibition on the pottery road project at the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology on the occasion of President Ho Chi Minh’s birthday (May 19) was also the idea of this artist.

Bennet will design the first pottery painting of 2m long for the pottery road project. He suggests turning the project into an international one through inviting some foreign artists to take part in the project without coming to Vietnam. He said that he will call for his colleagues in other countries to send one or two pottery paintings to Vietnam. Each work will have the name of the author, the name of their country and the pottery material.

It is hoped that the idea of Bennett will make the pottery road a special one with pottery paintings from various countries in the world.

Bennett said that in the three years of implementing this project he would come to Vietnam very often to directly make pottery paintings with Vietnamese colleagues and make pottery paintings in the US as well and send them to Vietnam by sea.

Busy on the ‘pottery road’

Every week painter Thuy has to go to Bat Trang pottery village 3-4 times to directly make pottery paintings. The weekend is for writing as a journalist and the remaining time is for designing patterns to make pottery paintings.

While the author of the pottery road project is busy running from Hanoi to Bat Trang village, her husband – Nguyen Huy Cuong – is also busy with his wife’s project.
Cuong is a journalist like his wife. Though Cuong is not a member of the pottery road project, he is an efficient assistant to his wife in carrying out the project. Thuy and her husband are sketching the first pottery painting, which reflects the Dong Son civilisation. Their house is now full of pottery samples.

Involved in this project, Thuy doesn’t have much time to do housework but her family understands her job and helps Thuy to have more time for the project.

Since the project was just an idea till it was about to become reality, Cuong was always the one who took care of the capital for the project. He sold his antique 1949 Peugeot 203 to get money for his wife’s project.

This car has stayed with Cuong and Thuy’s family for over ten years and it has been used in three films, including the US film named “The Quiet American”. However, this is not the first time Cuong has sold a car to help his wife. Previously he sold a Citroen Traction Avant manufactured in 1937. Cuong said that if needed, he would sell two other Mercedes to support his wife’s project.

It is very sad for a collector of old cars like Cuong when he has to say goodbye to his cars but he is ready to “sacrifice” his hobby to contribute to a meaningful project that his wife and artists are performing. “When I help my wife implement this project, I understand that I’m contributing my small part to a job of great meaning,” Cuong said.

Kieu Minh

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