The Modular Visual Language of Sculptor Diem Phung Thi and Art in Vietnamese Spatial Installation

Abstract

This article examines the modular visual language developed by the Vietnamese sculptor Diem Phung Thi (1920–2002) as a self-sufficient system of plastic signs, and analyses its extended influence on Vietnamese spatial installation art. Drawing on the case study of the exhibition The Curious Adventure of the Modules (The Outpost Art Organization, Hanoi, 2024), the article argues that Diem Phung Thi’s seven elementary forms constitute a visual grammar a structured set of minimal units capable of generating infinite spatial configurations. Through a theoretical framework combining Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen’s social semiotic approach with the concept of materiality inherited from international Concrete Art, the article demonstrates that the modular system operates simultaneously as formal language, cultural inscription, and spatial practice. Rather than positioning Vietnamese installation art as derivative of Western movements, the article foregrounds the ways in which Diem Phung Thi transformed international influences into a distinctly local aesthetic logic rooted in the Vietnamese architectural form, material culture, and spatial thinking. The analysis contributes to current debates on non-Western trajectories in contemporary installation art and to the broader historiography of the Concrete Art’s global legacies.