Day 2, 3 AND 6
While in Hoi An, Vietnam, we worked on a few projects with a local artist, Mr. Thẫng. Despite our language differences (his English is much better than my non-existent Vietnamese), we were able to communicate quite well. Mr. Thẫng creates art out of found objects, many of them items he has gathered off the beach. He is truly able to see how one man's garbage can be another man's treasure. We were initially tasked with decorating a swing set he had built (but not yet assembled) for a local school.
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As Kyle, Francita and I thought about design ideas, I wanted to be sure whatever we came up was culturally relevant. I noticed a small weed growing out from under Mr. Thẫng's workshop, a small purple flower. Francita talked about how Hoi An used to be a fishing village. We decided on a theme of sea, earth and sky, Kyle contributing the clouds!
We designed and painted the upright supports as well as the tires and wood that would be used for the swing's seats. The next day, we worked with a local youth agency to dig holes, make mortar and assemble the swing set. As the students were leaving for the day we were just finishing up. They couldn't wait to try it!
Another project we tackled with Mr. Thẫng was one of a series of beach fish he makes. Inspired by similar projects, our coordinator, Bella and Mr. Thẫng came up with the idea to build four fish to help clean up local beaches. The idea is that these fish are placed on the beach where visitors can place their plastic, recyclable bottles. He builds a trap door at the bottom to allow for easy collection by anyone willing to take the bottles to a recycler. It was fun to work with him and realize how much thought he puts into his designs. For instance, the mouth is designed that only smaller items like the bottles can be placed in the fish. Each fish is build to withstand beach conditions for four years. He welds the basic frame and paints it. With the help of GlobeAware volunteers like us, he adds reclaimed fish netting to hold the bottles inside the frame. Then we decorate the fish with a sign, a mouth and fins. The fins and mouth are painted motorcycle tires, similar to those we used on the swing set. Using foam floats washed up on the shore, we painted them to look like eyeballs and attached them to the side of the fish.
One of the pieces of art in his studio was painted fish on netting and driftwood. We asked if he had any extra fish, which he did. We painted these and then the next group would attach them to the netting. I can't wait to see pictures of "our fish" on a Hoi An beach.
I'd love to see a recycling fish on every beach!
