The Factory sounds like a hipster dive in Brooklyn or an 80s-era suspense thriller. In Ho Chi Minh City, District 2, it’s a creative hub established in April 2016 aiming to showcase and encourage further awareness of artistic and cultural expression in Vietnam.
We popped in to check it out and do some work. My partner and I are setting up a social enterprise called United Edge. We don’t have an office, and even our home is on the move, so these cafes are our work spaces. As a social enterprise, our mission is to work with change makers to transform our broken systems with alternative models for global justice. It sounds like a mouthful, but it basically means, “Something’s broke. Let’s fix it.”
On this particular sunny day, our office was an inspiring collection of painted shipping crates, minimalist concrete and rusty steel construction, and a menagerie of art, juices and coffee. For some reason, it’s these settings that underline the beauty, freedom and excitement of charting our own course. No more “9-to-5” slog. From here on out, I hope life and work both mean doing the things that I believe in.
I really believed in the almond cappuccino that came next. If a soy coffee is hard to find in Ho Chi Minh, try searching for almond – let alone a perfectly professional, well-blended and beautifully-poured cup-a-joe.
Taking a break, we wandered into the art space. I actually heavily debated with myself whether or not to share what we found on this vegan blog: paintings in oxblood. There’s nothing vegan about that.
Or is there?
A series of six large canvases were slathered with slaughterhouse scenes. If the staff hadn’t come over and pointed out the artist Nguyễn Văn Du’s unusual use of oxblood, I wouldn’t have known. The images are raw, honest and visceral – there’s something sinister and beautiful in them. The texture is reminiscent of those finger paintings with chocolate pudding we did in preschool. But mix that with the skill of an oil-painter, and you start to get it.
I don’t believe in exploiting animals, even to make a point. Then I learned the artist is vegetarian. “Nguyễn Văn Du’s adept and gestural large scale canvases,” explains the exhibit, “take us behind the scenes, into the abattoirs of suburban Ho Chi Minh City.” Obviously the artist doesn’t find anything non-veggie about this.
Actually, as I stood there admiring the conviction of the canvases, the controversy became clearer. Is using animal blood to expose the brutality of abattoirs a vegan act?
Not everyone will agree, but I think it is. I tried and failed to come up with a more appropriate medium to make this point. There was something more tangibly real coming from the oxblood, an indictment painted in the victims’ own blood.
We can argue about whether this should appear in a vegan blog, but I think everyone would agree that that without the oxblood, we wouldn’t be talking about it. And we need to talk about it. We need to help others see the brutality behind the burger. If even one person goes veggie because of it, that’s worth it.
EVERYONE IS VEGAN 