Throughout her career, Lê Giang has experimented with Vietnamese vernacular techniques of plaster-casting, inlay, paper-embossing and, more recently, ‘painting’ with gemstones – a technique she learnt from artisans in the gem-mining regions of Northern Viê. t Nam. Lê Giang carefully observed how these artisans make paintings from leftover ‘impure’ cuttings of precious gems, carefully sorted according to size and colour then crushed into a fine powder. A drawing is placed below a sheet of perspex as a guide, and the powders are sprinkled into complex compositions, fixed with liquid glue and scrubbed until they glisten.

Many gem painters favour a genre of landscape composition known as Majestic Mountains and Expansive Rivers (So’n thuy> hu~’u tình). While often considered kitsch, these paintings are popular with customers, who believe the works symbolise the purity of the natural world and confer prosperity, longevity and other desirable attributes on their owners.

Lê Giang’s series of gem paintings, titled after the genre, point to the irony inherent in such cultural perceptions of the natural world. Gem mining has led to erosion, the pollution of lakes and the deforestation of areas considered sacred in local spiritual practices. Departing from the traditional, awe-inspiring view of a sublime nature, Lê Giang subtly reveals the flaws and fissures in the environment and our perception of it.