After nearly two years, Nguyen Tan Phat, a famous contemporary artist for lacquer craft in Duong Lam Ancient Village, Hanoi, has completed a collection of 2,023 unique cat statues.
Cat, the Vietnamese zodiac animal of the upcoming Lunar New Year, has inspired a new collection of lacquer works by the sculptor. The cats are entirely handcrafted and highlight Vietnamese art in 2023.
The artist said to celebrate the Year of the Cat 2023, he wishes to honor the values of Vietnamese traditional lacquer art and introduce the cultural features of the place where he was born through these feline statues.
“I had conceived and carried out the project for years. In order to make such a unique edition, it takes me a lot of time, effort, and money,” Phat told The Hanoi Times.
The feline statuettes are displayed at Phat's showroom in Duong Lam Ancient Village in Hanoi's outskirt town of Son Tay. |
An extensive collection with 2023 figures of the cat. |
Lacquer works by Phat are all single copies. Each piece of lacquer art has only one version with no analogs. |
“Amid modern life, everything could be mass-produced through machinery, and unique and handmade products have become increasingly rare. Therefore, these collections are made exclusively to evoke the creative values of Vietnamese people,” Phat added. |
“Unique” means creating feline statues that have unique, special features that are not seen anywhere. “Unique” also means the originality of the artist's creativity but still can showcase the unique values of Vietnamese culture. |
This is Phat’s third unique collection of artworks inspired by symbolic animals of the lunar calendar. Before the cat collection, he made 1,010 buffalo statues on the occasion of the 1,010th anniversary of Hanoi in 2021 and 2,022 tiny tigers to welcome 2022, the Year of the Tiger. |
The highlight of Phat’s cat collection is a set of chairs and a table called “A Spring Feast”. It features seven chairs in the shape of a cat and a fish-shaped table, showcasing the great creativity of the artist. |
Phat said that the set depicts the meal of a witty and lively cat family celebrating a new year. It aims to extend the artist’s wishes to every Vietnamese family in 2023 for a happy, peaceful, and prosperous new year. |
