What if art functions as a visual form for transmitting knowledge and entangled histories, and the artist is a messenger between them and the audience?
With an academic background in image sciences and professional career in digital media, French-Vietnamese multidisciplinary artist Quang deLam (Quang Lam) works across photography, painting and installation. His artistic process is often research-driven, where he starts from looking into science, history and geography, and with archival materials playing a significant role. This approach is reflected throughout his works included in his first solo exhibition “Seas of Silk” (2025) at Lotus Gallery and in the group exhibition “Archive and Post-Archive” at Vincom Center for Contemporary Art (VCCA) as a part of Biennale Photo Hanoi 2025.
Quang deLam next to his work ‘Tales from the Land of Dragons’ (2025) as a part of “Archive and Post-archive,” Biennale Photo Hanoi 2025. Photo courtesy of the artist.
His exploration of different materials and media is closely linked to his scientific background and inspired by Marshall McLuhan's well-known phrase, “The medium is the message,” from Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964). McLuhan’s idea implies that the communication medium itself is the message, and the form of the message determines the way the message is perceived — which resonates strongly in Quang’s practice. He initially worked primarily with photography, a medium often associated with “conveying the truth,” but became interested in how the same knowledge can be perceived differently when “translated” onto different mediums. Through the re-composition of objects and forms, painting allows him to reorganize visual information and alter how the truth is constructed and perceived by the audience. Since 2022, this has marked a shift in his practice as he became fully engaged in art-making by expanding beyond photography into painting and installation, alongside his research on science and history.
Quang Lam's series of paintings and installations, recently presented in the solo exhibition “Seas of Silk” (2025) at Lotus Gallery, draws on the history of the maritime Silk Road, shipwrecked ceramics, ancient civilization, and their surrounding narratives. Developed through his research of maps and astrology, as a combination of different materials and historical references, the bodies of works invites viewers to consider the inter-relationship between these histories, the way we view histories that we had never lived in but could only imagine and find out through historical sources, with connections to our contemporary world.
The central installation depicts a shipwreck scene with broken ceramic fragments scattered on the ground. The paintings incorporate representations of the silk road expeditions, using the Maokun map as a reference, alongside motifs drawn from shipwrecked ceramics from museum collections and transformed into iconography. In ‘Cocoon’ (2025) and ‘Pegasus cells’ (2025), the centrally placed cocoon shape references the process of silk production. Surrounding this are images of corals and motifs from Chu Đậu ceramics, such as the mythical pegasus, a bird on a tree branch, shrimps, and flowers — all rendered in iconographic forms in bright, vibrant colors and clean lines. While the compositions evoke a sense of collage and abstraction, this reveals the artist’s process: collecting images and artifacts, turning them into iconographic elements, and arranging them on the paintings.
In other paintings, such as ‘Dancing with the storm’ (2025) and ‘Oc Eo Aurora’ (2025), the imagery shifts towards sea and mountainous terrains, depictions of the wind currents, and shipwreck scenes. One work depicts ships coming from afar, with silhouettes of ancient Oc Eo statues appearing across the horizon. The main reference behind these paintings is the historic Mao Kun map, also known as Zheng He’s Navigation Map, published in 1628 during China’s Ming dynasty. Originally created as a rollable strip map documenting coastal regions and islands along the maritime routes, it is considered to be the earliest known Chinese map on the maritime Silk Road connecting different parts of Asia, Persia, Arabia and East Africa. By adopting this Asian map as a reference, Quang intentionally moves away from the Eurocentric perspectives that have long dominated historical mapping and education.
For the artist, maps themselves function as a kind of “abstract” art, even though they were not originally created with artistic intention. Ancient navigators recorded mountains, rivers, and terrains encountered during their journey, where lived experiences are translated into a system of measurement. While maps are often discussed from a geographical and political perspective, they are rarely considered within the context of art. This perspective made Quang highlight the importance of scientific knowledge beyond how mainstream art history is often written, which tends to focus on stylistic development.
Beyond cartography, Quang deLam also researches astrology, the use of astrolabes and compasses, acknowledging that navigators in the past relied on the stars in the sky to navigate their way through darkness, whether on land or at sea. For him, one of the most fundamental ways to understand the world is through measurement: time measured by the clock, directions determined by the compass, and position in relation to the stars measured through the astrolabe. These systems explain the different layers of his artistic and research practices, as well as different materials, with the aim of creating works that embody a sense of time and space.
‘Astrolabs Saigon–Hanoi’ (2024) features an astrolabe-like structure, composed of large ruler forms positioned at the top, paired with die-cut plexiglass panels engraved with city maps. Beneath the plexiglass layer is a painted star chart, alongside archived letters with destinations written on the envelopes. According to the artist, the constellations depicted in the work are calculated according to the specific date on the letters, determining the positions of the stars at that moment. The letters contain names of senders and recipients from different locations, with postal stamps and sending and receiving dates, providing the basic geographic information of who, where and when. Collected by the artist, the letters themselves are artifacts representing lived histories of movement, measurement, and communication.
‘Astrolabs Hanoi–Saigon,’ 2024. 90 x 36cm. Inox, plexiglass, wood, paper, postcard. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Returning to photography with an emphasis on archival materials accumulated throughout the years, Quang deLam’s “Tales from the Land of Dragons” (2025) was recently featured in the large-scale group exhibition “Archive and Post-archive” (2025) at Vincom Center for Contemporary Art (VCCA), curated by Đỗ Tường Linh and Éline Gourgues, as part of the Biennale Photo Hanoi 2025. The installation centers an index drawer surrounded by stacks of white boxes and books, with dragonfruits placed on top and inside the index drawer, and some in between the book stacks. These elements are connected by a dense network of electric wires and threads, with photography works of dragonfruits and books staged within old libraries on display in the background.
Installation view of ‘Tales from the Land of Dragons’ (2025) as a part of “Archive and Post-archive,” Biennale Photo Hanoi 2025. Photo courtesy of the artist.
The work took inspiration from the Vietnamese origin myth “Con rồng cháu tiên,” which depicts the Vietnamese people as descendants born from 100 eggs laid by the dragon lord Lạc Long Quân and the fairy Âu Cơ; following their separation, 50 eggs were taken to the mountains while 50 returned to the ocean. In this installation, according to the exhibition text, the work “takes the fruits of the dragons [dragon fruits] as the symbol of the eggs, and along the various pictures combines with architectural and book elements to compose the timeline of contemporary Vietnam.” By linking this myth with the modern and contemporary Vietnamese history, which was marked by upheavals and violence, the work reflects on the shifting access to knowledge: from the colonial period, where it was largely restricted to a small number of intellectual elite, to the post-independence period when public libraries play an important role in making cultural resources and knowledge accessible to the public. The photography installation itself in this case represents an archive of knowledge and a timeline of cultural memory.
Installation view of ‘Tales from the Land of Dragons’ (2025) as a part of “Archive and Post-archive,” Biennale Photo Hanoi 2025. Photo courtesy of the artist.
As much of his practice centers on history and knowledge, Quang deLam employs archival materials and research to bridge science and art, while reflecting on the nature of knowledge itself, and the significant role of human consciousness. “Knowledge comes first, then our consciousness and then followed by our actions. If you have knowledge but without consciousness, there’s no meaning in your action. The same thing applies to art, where action needs to be guided,” Quang deLam shared with Saigoneer.
For the artist, art functions as a means of knowledge and a prophecy: it is not about his own self-expression, but about transmitting understanding to the viewer, positioning the artist as a messenger. In this increasingly complex world — where distinctions between what is real and what is fabricated are often blurred — he believes that art plays a vital role in cultivating awareness and critical engagement with new knowledge, rather than relying on inherited moral principles passed down through generations.
Photos courtesy of Quang deLam.
