Walking into Lyn Nga’s studio is walking into a graphic world with colourful shelves of fabric, designs hanging all over white walls, painting frames, easels, drawing tools with some plant pods and lots of vibrant flowers arranged around a petite room. The room’s owner gives me a special impression about a 70s open-minded feminist from the first met. She told me that her father built the room himself, from the floor to the walls and wooden stairs. And she painted the very first layers of paint on all these walls, planted trees, sewed curtains and other stuff, went out to find and collect some fitted little things for decorations, all by herself.
She opened a wooden box containing her collection of dried flowers and leaves and our conversation had further stepped into the world of flowers and leaves which bore many stages of emotions.
Since when have you started collecting and pressing these?
Lyn Nga: My very first leaves I collected were since my student life, must be over 10 years now. Back then I went out alot. Anywhere I’ve been, I wanted to bring some spirit of that place back home. I like picking shells, coral pieces or some sand when I visit a beach. In the mountains, I like collecting moss, fern, wild leaf or wildflower. Being in the city or in the countryside doesn’t matter, I will find a green space, standing under the shade of a tree and look down to my feet to find whether any leaves fall off.
To leaf or petite flower, collecting is simple, I only need to carry a small note, that’s plenty room to press them. With bigger flowers, it is required to have special tools for pressing and more meticulous skills. I have self-learnt how to press flowers the ‘technical’ way for around 5 years back.
You have collected many and various kinds, do you remember where those leaves are from?
To some special ones to me, I do remember, everything is like a slow motion film that has its certain context and story. The rest I am not sure about, I often note down: where, when, why do I keep it, related stories… People who are close and have been with me for a long time automatically think that they don’t need to buy any gifts for me if they are on a trip, just need to bring back some flowers or leaves that I could be smothery happy with.
Therefore, my collection is quite abundant from everywhere: Vietnam, Japan, Korea, India, Canada, Ameria, Germany, France, Australia.. The leaves that still have dirt from the garden or the forest on them, some sparkling dust from the streets, I’d like to keep them that way without cleaning them.
After being dry-pressed, how would they change?
Some leaves are thick when they are fresh and firm but after being pressed, they become very thin and translucent like silk. Maple leaves, blackberry lily leaves are leaves that can maintain stunning colours. There are some that change vigorously in colours, even turning to dark brown or blackened.
If drying leaves only needs to be pressed in between book pages, drying flowers requires more complex techniques because it is 3D. After drying, it is hard to say what they will turn out to be like about their forms and colours, especially flowers that have complex pistil systems. Orchid has thick petals and plum, fragile pistil and easily moulded if not being stored in a preferable environment. For daisies, sometimes they should be cut in half to press each piece, I would discard some petals if it is rose. Besides, flowers require specialised tools for pressing, it costs quite some time and sophisticated.
Flowers are beautiful but wither quickly; therefore dry-pressing is a genius way to preserve the beauty of a flower, I think.
So how long does it take you to finish a work of flowers and leaves arrangement?
Similar to drawing or designing, first steps don’t take much time. The process of having concepts, learning, researching and developing ideas are really time-consuming.
There is one piece of work that I got up in the middle of the night because I came up with a cool solution and wanted to experiment right away. That night I stayed up till morning and completed the work within 5 to 6 hours. But there are some that took me years to finish because the season of the flowers had passed, I had to wait for the next season in the following year. After pressing, I would wait for 2 to 5 weeks for the flowers to be completely dried in order to arrange and complete.
There is a work that I poured my heart into, in which I used the flowers and leaves that I had been collecting for the past 10 years. That is the material from my journeys, the flutter of places that I visited for the first time, of days that I engrossed in documentary projects when I could absolutely fall asleep anywhere, of times that I worked in different projects about natural preservation, of big turns in my career, of changes in living locations, love affairs, relationships that are closer than family, encounters, joys and funs, the hunts for thrown-away flowers after Tet holiday, Valentine or the 8th of March… My whole growing and changing process is embedded in that work.
Some people offer to buy it but I decide not to. For later when I get old and lose memory, I can look at that to recall my stormy coming-back-from-hell decade (laughing loudly).
What is it in pressing and arranging flowers that attracts you?
It is the charming integrity in a rustic way of nature. Flowers and leaves in particular and plants in general always remind me that we, human beings, are just a very small part of nature.
However, when I pick flowers, I certainly follow the rule of 1/20, which means I only pick a single flower/leaf if there are about 20 flowers/leaves around. Leaving others the opportunities to contemplate while avoiding damaging the plants. If I found it too beautiful and picked them all, gradually there will be no more to pick (smile).
As I have known that Frida Kahlo and Azuma Makoto are people who inspire you. What is your impression about them and how do they inspire you?
Frida Kahlo’s paintings have many scenes of nature, they catch me in terms of visuality, not to mention about the will of living and her grand love for art. It’s been 2 Halloween seasons in which I have dressed as Frida (smile).
Azuma Makoto is a flower artist from Japan – one who has the creativity to overcome any limitation that makes me truly admire. Makoto’s flower arranging artworks are stunning even in the desert, under the deep sea, buried in ice snow or even out in space. I also love how he places flowers next to artificial objects to create a contrast in his artworks.
Is there any place that you especially wish to visit and collect flowers from? And what kind of flowers or leaves are they?
It’s my husband-to-be’s hometown. He is a doctor of science in biology, he told me about countless interesting kinds of flowers and plants but I haven’t had the chance to see them myself. Eventually it will be my home so I want to love the land through each grass and plant.
I wish to visit the maple wood, pine forest, to touch the blue flag irish, trillium, mayflower, Mountain Avens rose and the mosses, ferns, lichens in national parks.
HT: What kind of flowers do you give your loved ones on special occasions?
LN: I generally find gifts they like. I only send flowers to ones that like flowers, If they don’t like flowers, what is the point of giving them to (smile).
Photos of the article are mostly leaves and flowers from friends sending from different times, countries, which were displayed in an exhibition by the collaboration of Lyn Nga and Artistay in March 2021.
Interview
Hoang Huong Tra
Photo
Artistay
