A story of a snail, a story of mine

"It started one day when I was upset about unsmooth work though I have tried my best.  I was there, at the bank of a fish pond, staring at the opposite wall with blanking mind, feeling that it was so far away. Then I spotted something moving. It was a small snail. I was continuously starring at it with blank mind.   

Suddenly, a small lizard appeared from nowhere, cross the way of the snail and made it tumble all the way into the water and then quickly disappeared behind the wall. I was like a child, stunningly with my eyes wide open, to watch the snail vigorously fight for his life without making any progress.

I felt pity for him and in my mind, I knew that I should save him. I picked up a fallen tree branch on the ground and tried to fish him out and put him on my palm. The moment I touched his shell, he immediately hidden inside it. Look at him, I realize that it was a big one. After a while, he emerged again from his shell, trying to get away. I look at him closely this time and get that creepy feeling. His fat body is polished black, mushy and snotty with slush. The more I looked at him, the creepier I got. I then put him on the wall and he slowly slowly crawled away.

I found myself talking to him, like: “Why you have to bear such a heavy shell?”, then “if not, you have died, haven’t you?” then “that’s it! C’est lavie!” I asked my self if I was crazy, talking to a snail, then I realized that I was talking to myself. I was not upset anymore. Instead, I felt more confident and knew that I will continue to walk my way.

I was telling the story to my family that night. It brought them a good laughs to find how silly I am. But it wasn’t just going away. It swirled in my mind for days after that. Today, I know that I have learnt so much from that story. It is the inspiration for this exhibition."
                                                                          
- PHUONG QUOC TRI