other hand, the symbols of technology and data communications are hand-painted in the traditional process of the Vietnamese lacquer medium a digital subject portrayed in analog form.

Peret's art has long been informed by the interaction between nature, culture and technology. The free-party music scene of the mid nineties, for example, resonated strongly in the artist's consciousness for its merging of nature and technology. Mirroring video games, these events required the attendees to call a secret number to obtain the party's coordinates by folowing a human maze moving from one clue to the next. Massive lighting and sound systems blaring electronic music placed modern technology and culure right in the heart of remote, natural landscapes.

The link between technology and culture is also evident in Peret's Pacman actions. Since becoming fascinated by the yellow character in the 80s, the artist embarked upon a long relaionship wih the eponymous symbol of early video games. To Peret, Pacman reflects man's desire to create a living technological entity -  Pacman lives, eats and dies. Throughout the 90s, painted images of Pacman consumed his surroundings, ever-present on objects like wrist-watches, hats and cars. Pacman also appeared in both private and public spaces, making his most visible appearances along a 0.4 to 1.7 kilometer stretch of the Tour de France from 2001 - 2003.​

While the representational elements in Peret's new work are certainly inspired by Vietnam - his curent country of residence - they are also mixed with cultural history of the artist. In the same way that nature and tehnology inform each other, the works in Photosynthesis are an amalgam of Vietnamese and western culture and artmaking.

​Based on the artist's photographs of elaborately entangled electricity and telephone cables against a backdrop of the brilliant foliage of trees, Photosynthesis visually links technology to nature. The tangible echoing of plant leaves and vines in the snarled cables prompts one to wonder if technology is replicating nature, or if its in fact the other way around. This opens a wider debate on the topic of how nature and technology are defined. In today's world of bio-engineering and the controversy surroundings transgenics, could the plants we see around us be the result of technological tinkering? In fact, the latest direction of science seems to be geared towards nanotechnology an replicating nature for the creation of miniature robots that act almost as a new species - evolution speeded up through science.

As science and technology progress the boundaries between what is "natural" and what is man-made become more and more blurred. While humans have a tendency to play with nature and shape it to or will, Nature never seems quite to act in the way we wish, metamorphosing and adding its own twists to our creations. However much we could like to think ourselves superior to Nature, we always seem to come back to try to emulate it. In Peret's lacquer works, not only are the images of the electricity and telegraph poles a visual echo of the teeming plant life in our world, but the power lines themselves can aslo been as living organisms that transform and grow as more lines are added, with others becoming redundant and ending up hanging low in their death throes.

As our ability not only to mimic, but to adapt nature to our culture develops, there remains in our human psyche a feeling of nostalgia for "raw" nature - something untouched by human development. The telegraph poles and power lines appear to represent the confluence of Nature and Technology - they serve the purpose of human development while at te same time mirroring the wonder of the natural world.

Perhaps the works in Photosynthesis address a double need - the desire to reconnect with nature, to succumb to the unpredictability and chaos of life and the conflicting desire to continuously develop and exercise our control over the world around us.

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