Video of Heaven Abandoned Us Exhibition

At first glance, the paintings of Bui Thanh Tam’s Abandoned by Heaven collection project an air of innocence and a pollyanish sense of contentment. The doe-eyed figures in the paintings look to be in the midst of living happy and prosperous lives, but there is something amiss lying just underneath the surface of the paintings. The most easily distinguishable signal is given in the form of the twisted branches of the peach blossom trees featured in many of the paintings. They are in full bloom which brings associations of spring and renewal, but the unnatural positions of the branches suggest a conscious contortion that has distorted what was once beautiful and pure.