Kimono #3

Description

Binh Pho, a Chicago-based artist, fuses traditional Asian iconography and philosophy with contemporary aesthetics in an ancient medium, combining painting, woodturning, sculpting, airbrushing, and piercing techniques to create commanding art forms.
Pho’s associations in the U.S. were crucial to his artistic development, but the struggles and experiences that preceded his move to the States from Vietnam continue to inform his work. Attempting to escape the communist regime, Pho traveled on foot through the bamboo forests near Laos. In Kimono #3, Pho references this experience in the beautifully painted bamboo on the kimono, and the pierced spaces surrounding the vessel to create a sense of looking into a mystical bamboo forest.
Pho is driven by a philosophical urge to share an aesthetic that promotes a deep respect for nature. It is not just the history found in the grain of the wood, but the deep respect for the tree itself that fascinates and motivates him. He puts a soul into every piece he creates. As an artist, Pho has made it his mission to reveal the beauty in wood, to give the tree new life and allow it to live again in a new way.
from the exhibition Nature Transformed: Wood Art from the Bohlen Collection, June 12 – October 3, 2004