Dreams float down from the sky with the promise of “more sustainable, more dynamic lifestyle.” “Live in the land with wealth socio-economic.” “A place where the quality of modern life is redefined and filled with happiness.” These are just a few quotes from different real estate ads, showing the ambiguity of the dream and reality of an emerging new landscape along the Saigon River. But interesting things happen when these Ideals start to shape the actual physical landscape. New forms emerge as these dreams materialize. Buildings are demolished, communities vanish, people are dislodged, the place becomes flat and empty, and now, all that is left are pieces of place have been eaten and swallowed by the dream, scattered all over the ground and along the river.

        After observing many districts in Saigon. I got interested in Thu Thiem, a place in the process of development. In Thu Thiem, there are many leftover bricks or stones from the demolished buildings of displaced communities along the Saigon River. I collected these pieces and photographed the landscape with expired films to capture what I see in this present time in this landscape as it merges into urbanity and emptiness. I see in these empty lands a vessel (space) to be filled with dreams (ideal) of the people from across the river. after capture landscapes, the outcome has become something different just like the ideal in the landscape that manipulates images of this place to become something unreal like quotes in the ad. These dreams slowly swallow the land all around Thu Thiem. This makes the landscape transform into an ambiguous place between dream (ideal) and reality (physical space). These dreams and physical relics blend into Thu Thiem’s landscape, erasing some insight about the character of this place, district, community, building, the people that have already been eaten and swallowed by the ideals. Like these pieces of place, they have been rendered by the dream, forced to vanish, fade away, and will be forgotten forever.