Meet Tô Bich Hai: The revealer of Wandering Souls
Tô Bich Hai’s creative journey is a profound meditation on memory, the spiritual essence of discarded objects, and the indelible imprint of cultural inheritance. A visual symphony that harmonizes art, ancestral heritage, and the hidden energies of matter.
At MAG The Women Gallery, we’ll delve deeper into her life, artistic style and body of work.
A Journey Rooted in Roots and Art:
Born in 1947 in northern Vietnam within the Tay ethnic community, rich in shamanic and oral traditions, Tô Bich Hai’s early formative years were steeped in both local spirituality and colonial-era European academic art. She trained under the classical discipline of the Fine Arts, later moving to Switzerland and settling in France in 1968.
From Academic Painting to Transformative Assemblages
Initially, her work resonated with traditional painting—evoking Balthus-like scenes of Burgundy village life, where children’s absence left only the bittersweet remains of their toys.
Her focus soon shifted: doll restoration evolved into creative transformation. She worked with prestigious Thuillier, Schmitt, Jumeau dolls, as well as more rustic “Pauline” models. This phase awakened her to materials such as wood, plaster, papier-mâché, leather, wire, and horsehair.
A pivotal moment came through a grave health crisis. In response, she crafted the visceral, raw dolls Aspirin and Penicillin—a ritualistic rejection of medicine, and a powerful return to her indigenous spiritual roots.
Resurrection of the Discarded: Art as Soul-Awakening
There were people falling down to the sea. Ones killed by wild wolves’ canines of elephant’s ivory
Since that transformation, Tô Bich Hai has embraced what she calls “dusts of life,” integrating cast-off materials—vine stakes, stones, objects “rejected by earth, sea or flame”—and breathing into them character, dignity, and spirit.
Her acacia stake series is especially striking: aged, weathered vine supports become sculptural beings. With minimal intervention—often just seeds, buttons, or pigment—she reveals their inner soul, turning invisible entities into living presences.
She also uses stone rubbings: graphite tracings of worn architectural surfaces become canvases on which she “embroiders” new narratives—visible veins of history and intangible resonance.
“The Origins”: A Journey Back to Memory and Nature
Her solo exhibition The Origins (2025) at the Vietnam Women’s Museum showcases the arc of her artistic evolution. It includes:
- Oil paintings of tree roots, vast and trunk-like, weaving memory into form
- “Listening to the Whispering Stones” and “Listening to the Sighing Trees”, meditative dialogues with nature
- Lacquered fruit still lifes, exploring elemental origins
- Portraits of children, reflecting displacement and memory
- Totem installations, invoking traditional worship and primal ritual
As Nguyen Thi Tuyet, director of the museum, remarked, Tô Bich Hai bridges tradition and modernity—her art is a spiritual conduit between epochs, cultures, and the origins of existence.
Beyond the gallery, Tô Bich Hai’s commitment to humanity echoes her artistic mission. Through the ASSORV Association in France, she has actively supported orphanages, scholarships, and educational initiatives in Vietnam—infusing her life with the same restorative warmth she gives to neglected objects and forgotten souls.
There were souls hiding along the bushes, Or ones lying under streams, or in a certain place, or the bushes, or in the shade of a tree, or in the shop, ao at the bridge, all desolates in fates
Tô Bich Hai transforms the discarded into the sacred. Her art asks us to listen to the silent histories around us—to recognize that even the most overlooked materials carry memory, longing, and life. She is a true seer who reveals what lies unseen, and reminds us how origins live on in every root, stone, and fragment.
Stay tuned for upcoming features on our blog, and a closer look at her latest series only at MAG The Women Gallery.
Fuentes:
https://artistesactuels.fr/en/to-bich-hai-outsiderart/
https://en.nhandan.vn/female-painter-to-bich-hai-opens-the-origins-exhibition-post144882.html