{"id":8110,"date":"2026-10-15T15:56:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T15:56:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/?p=8110"},"modified":"2026-10-15T15:58:04","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T15:58:04","slug":"xuan-ha-vanitas-in-a-vietnamese-key","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/xuan-ha-vanitas-in-a-vietnamese-key\/","title":{"rendered":"Xuan Ha: Vanitas in a Vietnamese Key"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">vanitas<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> motif became particularly prevalent in German and Flemish painting. In <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Ambassadors<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Hans Holbein the Younger depicts two diplomats standing beside a luxurious array of objects \u2013 astronomical measuring instruments, a globe, a lute, flutes, books and weapons \u2013 together with a skull stretched as though subjected to acceleration. The painting presents an easily deciphered allegory: power, wealth, knowledge and beauty will all fade, leaving humanity as bare as bleached bones in a creation that both bestows everything and takes everything away. What remains in the painting is the peculiar gaze of the two figures \u2013 a gaze in which humility and an awareness of all that is slipping away open the way towards humane conduct, guided by religious sentiment.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_8119\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8119\" style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8119\" src=\"https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/N-1314-00-000260-wpu.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"789\" srcset=\"https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/N-1314-00-000260-wpu.webp 800w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/N-1314-00-000260-wpu-300x296.webp 300w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/N-1314-00-000260-wpu-768x757.webp 768w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/N-1314-00-000260-wpu-100x100.webp 100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-8119\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hans Holbien the Younger, &#8220;The Ambassador&#8221; (1533), oil on wood, 207 \u00d7 209.5 cm. Main collection. Photo: The National Gallery, London.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As religion gradually recedes in the modern era, the burden of giving meaning to death \u2013 and therefore to life \u2013 increasingly falls to art. Without the guidance of the Bible, artists seek answers through the particular experiences of their own lives and those of others. In this sense, the vanitas paintings of the Renaissance and Baroque periods have found worthy successors in the installations of Xuan Ha, an artist closely connected to Quang Nam. If novelty constitutes the content of time \u2013 the new inventions displayed in profusion before Holbein&#8217;s two dignitaries, just as they are before the inhabitants of the modern world \u2013 then time has only one form: loss. To make time perceptible through the barest of means, an artist needs only place losses side by side. With her acute awareness of losses complex enough to encapsulate an entire region or historical period, Xuan Ha has used this minimal vocabulary to pursue questions on a grand scale.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_8118\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8118\" style=\"width: 1611px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8118 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Chan-dung-Xuan-Ha.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"1611\" height=\"1072\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Chan-dung-Xuan-Ha.webp 1611w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Chan-dung-Xuan-Ha-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Chan-dung-Xuan-Ha-1024x681.webp 1024w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Chan-dung-Xuan-Ha-768x511.webp 768w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Chan-dung-Xuan-Ha-1536x1022.webp 1536w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Chan-dung-Xuan-Ha-1200x799.webp 1200w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1611px) 100vw, 1611px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 1611px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 1611\/1072;\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-8118\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Artist Xuan Ha at the community project &#8220;What Can We Write on Rice Paper?&#8221; (2021). Photo courtesy of the artist.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Consider a minimalist installation: an overturned table. In <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Centralization<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (2022), to express the conflict between rampant urbanisation and the forced displacement of agricultural communities, she turns an old table upside down, covering it with soil, gravel and roots. At first glance, the table resembles a construction site with four tower blocks: a new way of life is rising, lifting people to heights they have never reached before. To achieve this progress, the old sacred order once bound to the land must be overturned. This is the spiritual order of agricultural communities: love for the nature that sustains them; love for the land to which they commit themselves through the graves of their ancestors and, eventually, their own; and love for neighbours who sit as equals to discuss how to live together rather than compete for dominance \u2013 all of which will be lost forever to urbanisation. Torn from the earth, the roots of spiritual life now point skywards, anchoring themselves in the ambition to rise \u2013 an ambition that can grasp nothing tangible, only empty space. Once the table&#8217;s stable horizontal order of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">b\u00e0n \/ b\u1eb1ng \/ b\u00ecnh<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (a Vietnamese wordplay linking the table, levelness, balance and equality) has been overturned, a vertical order embarks on the path of centralisation \u2013 the sacralisation of the power held by whoever stands highest.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In visual terms, the work conveys loss not only through the weathered appearance of the wood, the barren grey of the soil and the unsettling void around the roots pointing skywards, but also through the negation of an object&#8217;s purpose. Modern cities emerged from a spirit of coexistence among equal citizens, while the functionalist architecture of modernity arose to meet the basic needs of an ever-growing population. When urbanisation betrays these purposes merely to perpetuate itself, it resembles the overturned table: not only counterproductive, but deprived of its very identity as the qualities of b\u00e0n\/b\u1eb1ng\/b\u00ecnh are erased. The abyss at the heart of the contemporary spirit is the loss of an ultimate end: people are compelled to turn means into ends, until the world becomes a vast accumulation of means, endlessly expanding to fill its own emptiness.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_8111\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8111\" style=\"width: 1612px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-8111 size-full lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/02.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"1612\" height=\"1076\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/02.webp 1612w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/02-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/02-1024x684.webp 1024w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/02-768x513.webp 768w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/02-1536x1025.webp 1536w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/02-1200x801.webp 1200w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1612px) 100vw, 1612px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 1612px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 1612\/1076;\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-8111\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Installation space of &#8220;Centralization&#8221; (2022). Photo: Nguyen Art Foundation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_8112\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8112\" style=\"width: 1465px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-8112 size-full lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/03.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"1465\" height=\"1063\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/03.webp 1465w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/03-300x218.webp 300w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/03-1024x743.webp 1024w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/03-768x557.webp 768w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/03-1200x871.webp 1200w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1465px) 100vw, 1465px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 1465px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 1465\/1063;\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-8112\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Xuan Ha, &#8220;Centralization&#8221; (2022), found-table, roots of a dead plant, soil, gravel, grass, neon lighting. Photo: Nguyen Art Foundation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_8113\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8113\" style=\"width: 1615px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-8113 size-full lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/04.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"1615\" height=\"1077\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/04.webp 1615w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/04-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/04-1024x683.webp 1024w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/04-768x512.webp 768w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/04-1536x1024.webp 1536w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/04-1200x800.webp 1200w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1615px) 100vw, 1615px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 1615px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 1615\/1077;\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-8113\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Xuan Ha, &#8220;Centralization&#8221; (2022) (detail), found-table, roots of a dead plant, soil, gravel, grass, neon lighting. Photo: Nguyen Art Foundation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Loss does not come only when something reaches the end of its life. It occurs whenever life is unfolding, mingling and transforming things, causing each to lose the wholeness that the human mind attributes to it. This subtle observation runs through many of Xuan Ha&#8217;s installations, including <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Letter R<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (2025), commissioned by Noir Row Art Space in Thailand. At two now-closed sites originally built to serve the American military during the Vietnam War \u2013 Vista Rama Cinema and Ramasun Station \u2013 she constructed an installation by assembling surviving fragments: wooden doors, magazines and film posters, together with a Buddha statue and a fossilised dinosaur tooth once owned by a former employee of the station. The irony of the work lies in the film posters: all advertise adult films \u2013 a taboo in Thailand&#8217;s conservative society at the time, yet freely screened at night in cinemas serving American communities. The work reconstructs a strange, makeshift coexistence between the invading American forces, Thailand&#8217;s fossilised monarchy, adult films and the Buddha. When freedom, morality, faith and monarchy appear as provisional means of sustaining the many-sided nature of life \u2013 a life that will betray and strip each of these ideals of its meaning \u2013 ideals lose their sanctity, life loses its sanctity, and even desacralisation in the name of \u201dimpermanence\u201d loses the aura it once possessed.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_8114\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8114\" style=\"width: 1607px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-8114 size-full lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/06.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"1607\" height=\"1075\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/06.webp 1607w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/06-300x201.webp 300w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/06-1024x685.webp 1024w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/06-768x514.webp 768w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/06-1536x1028.webp 1536w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/06-1200x803.webp 1200w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1607px) 100vw, 1607px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 1607px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 1607\/1075;\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-8114\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Xuan Ha, &#8220;The Letter R (01)&#8221; (2025), site-specific installation, found wooden door at Vista Cinema, four film poster images printed inside four small spheres. \u200bPhoto: Noir Row Art Space.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_8115\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8115\" style=\"width: 1608px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-8115 size-full lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/07.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"1608\" height=\"1067\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/07.webp 1608w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/07-300x199.webp 300w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/07-1024x679.webp 1024w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/07-768x510.webp 768w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/07-1536x1019.webp 1536w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/07-1200x796.webp 1200w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1608px) 100vw, 1608px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 1608px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 1608\/1067;\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-8115\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Xuan Ha, &#8220;The Letter R (02)&#8221; (2025), site-specific installation, found wooden fragments at Ramasun Camp, one image printed inside a small sphere, Buddha statue, fossilised dinosaur tooth. Photo: Noir Row Art Space.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In this way, Xuan Ha&#8217;s works emphasise the absence of intrinsic nature \u2013 that is, the absence of fixed boundaries \u2013 in things. Each object is merely a temporary knot in a web of relationships, in currents of causality that never cease to flow. Perhaps this understanding explains her recurring use of two elements: wooden doors (symbolising the medium as intermediary or means of mediation) and blurred images. Both appeared in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Letter R<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and reappear in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The man who fell asleep, and the door that opened to an unnamed place<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (2025) \u2013 a work that turns towards intimate memory rather than scenes of social life. Onto two old wooden doors, she affixes photographs of her late grandfather with his family, an old calendar found in his suitcase after his death, and four photographs of her parents on the day of his funeral, blurred through four glass spheres. The photographic sequence captures her father letting a newspaper fall from his hands before drifting off to sleep, while her mother puts away a large decorative object in the shape of a red heart. In the downward movement of sleep and death, the news is folded away, consciousness gradually fades, and the loved ones who hold the heart are tucked into the shadowed corners of the frame: time is a string of beads threaded from losses. Yet according to the law of conservation of mass, matter is transformed rather than lost: the world is the corpse of all that has been lost, piled layer upon layer, just as dreams are formed from the accumulated remnants of images from the past. Her grandfather remains there in the black-and-white photographs, and the days gone by remain in the forgotten calendar. To live is to witness loss, but also to practise an art of installation that holds on to time. Only within living bodies and the parts of the world they transform can relationships between material things actively hold one another together, seeking to form memories of the past and dreams in which the future takes shape, through processes of meaning-making at the biochemical, psychological and social levels.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_8120\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8120\" style=\"width: 2403px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8120 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Screenshot-2026-10-15-at-10.49.17-PM.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"2403\" height=\"1599\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Screenshot-2026-10-15-at-10.49.17-PM.webp 2403w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Screenshot-2026-10-15-at-10.49.17-PM-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Screenshot-2026-10-15-at-10.49.17-PM-1024x681.webp 1024w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Screenshot-2026-10-15-at-10.49.17-PM-768x511.webp 768w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Screenshot-2026-10-15-at-10.49.17-PM-1536x1022.webp 1536w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Screenshot-2026-10-15-at-10.49.17-PM-2048x1363.webp 2048w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Screenshot-2026-10-15-at-10.49.17-PM-1200x799.webp 1200w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 2403px) 100vw, 2403px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 2403px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 2403\/1599;\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-8120\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Xuan Ha, &#8220;The man who fell asleep, and the door that opened to an unnamed place&#8221; (2025) (detail), found-object sculpture, two found wooden doors, four glass spheres with photos, two printed photos on wood, one old calendar set. Photo: Mo Art Space.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_8117\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8117\" style=\"width: 1611px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-8117 size-full lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/14.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"1611\" height=\"1068\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/14.webp 1611w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/14-300x199.webp 300w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/14-1024x679.webp 1024w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/14-768x509.webp 768w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/14-1536x1018.webp 1536w, https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/14-1200x796.webp 1200w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1611px) 100vw, 1611px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 1611px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 1611\/1068;\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-8117\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Xuan Ha, &#8220;The man who fell asleep, and the door that opened to an unnamed place&#8221; (2025) (detail), found-object sculpture, two found wooden doors, four glass spheres with photos, two printed photos on wood, one old calendar set. Photo: Mo Art Space.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: right\"><strong>Words: Nguyen Vu Hiep<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Translation: Art Nation<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A series of installations by Xuan Ha ask what time takes away and what remains to hold on to the meaning of life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":8115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[103,246,245],"class_list":["post-8110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art-natomy","tag-contemporary-art","tag-installation-art","tag-xuan-ha"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.4 (Yoast SEO v26.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Xuan Ha: Vanitas in a Vietnamese Key - Art Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/xuan-ha-vanitas-in-a-vietnamese-key\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Xuan Ha: Vanitas in a Vietnamese Key\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A series of installations by Xuan Ha ask what time takes away and what remains to hold on to the meaning of life.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/xuan-ha-vanitas-in-a-vietnamese-key\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Art Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-10-15T15:56:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-10-15T15:58:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/07.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1608\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1067\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Art Nation\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Art Nation\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"9 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/xuan-ha-vanitas-in-a-vietnamese-key\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/xuan-ha-vanitas-in-a-vietnamese-key\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Art Nation\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/bbc53c251ece846325437c3476449d7a\"},\"headline\":\"Xuan Ha: Vanitas in a Vietnamese Key\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-10-15T15:56:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-10-15T15:58:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/xuan-ha-vanitas-in-a-vietnamese-key\/\"},\"wordCount\":1512,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/xuan-ha-vanitas-in-a-vietnamese-key\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/07.webp\",\"keywords\":[\"Contemporary Art\",\"Installation art\",\"Xuan Ha\"],\"articleSection\":[\"[Art]natomy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/xuan-ha-vanitas-in-a-vietnamese-key\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/xuan-ha-vanitas-in-a-vietnamese-key\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/artnation.vn\/en\/xuan-ha-vanitas-in-a-vietnamese-key\/\",\"name\":\"Xuan Ha: Vanitas in a Vietnamese Key - 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