Gardens reveal their secrets
An exhibition exploring exotic inner-city gardens by Jamie Maxtone-Graham, an American photographer based in Hanoi, is currently on display at the Manzi Art Space.
The Desiring Garden exhibition captures the places that, for Maxtone Graham, exist between the projected and the perceived.
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He describes how the gardens hidden in the urban capital Hanoi inspire his work, which involves him manipulating indigenous species of plants, tools and sources of nourishment into various arrangements alongside people who he believes share a mysterious relationship with these objects. These garden installations further allowed him to prey on the Western perception of French Post-Impressionist painter Henri Rousseau (1844-1910).
In his photos, Vietnamese people of different ages stand inside mysterious gardens, surrounded by mysterious creatures grown outside the gardens. This secret relationship between the people and the gardens is what seems to will visitors to discover more and explore their imaginative side.
With 20 years’ experience in commercial and narrative cinematography in the US, Maxtone-Graham has had his works exhibited in the UK, the Netherlands, Thailand, France and Vietnam and has been published on several print and online publications.
He moved to Vietnam in 2007 and currently lives in Hanoi, where the exhibition will be held until the end of April at Manzi Art Space, 14 Phan Huy Ich Street.