80

To Be or Not To Be, by Binh Pho

Currency:USD Category:Art Start Price:0.00 USD
To Be or Not To Be, by Binh Pho
SOLD
7,500.00USD+ applicable fees & taxes.
This item SOLD at 2015 Jun 27 @ 15:48UTC-4 : AST/EDT
All items in this auction were created, at least in part, on the wood lathe, with wood as the primary material. All are one-of-a-kind signed originals, individually created by the artist listed.
Lot #80
To Be or Not To Be
Bronze, silver, maple, acrylic paints
5" x 6.5" x 6"

Binh Pho
Illinois, United States

"Life is filled with wonder. Some things happen for a reason, yet they’re not always as they appear to be. A good thing may be not be all good and bad thing may not be all bad. Life and death, success and failure, love and loss, all present an endless cycle of all things in the balance of Yin and Yang. When I missed the last helicopter at the American Embassy during the Fall of Saigon, I thought that was a worst day of my life. As the future unfolded, I found it was a good thing that had happened to me. The helicopter is represented by the metal part of this work, cast in bronze, providing negative space for the dragonfly, which represents the organic part - turned, textured, and painted on maple. The two halves can be presented as a bowl with endless possibilities in life, or can be detached, forming the sculpture as we want it to be. In a way, it also resembles a boat – such as the one that helped me to achieve the American Dream."

Binh Pho is a critically acclaimed artist, known for an expansive approach to work in wood and glass that includes painting and a unique exploration of positive and negative space. The works feature a highly personal iconography, with imagery that relates to Asian culture and the natural world. The story of his journey from an idyllic childhood in Vietnam, the rise of Communism and his escape to the United States in shared in the book River of Destiny: The Life and Work of Binh Pho, published in 2006, in conjunction with a retrospective of his work at the Long Beach Museum of Art. Binh Pho is in demand as a lecturer and demonstrator and his work is exhibited internationally and in the permanent collection of numerous museums.