Family

Drifting through a different space is Family (2019), a work comprising 42 jellyfish meticulously created in silk and polyester. Gently lit with color-changing lights, the jellyfish float down from the 5.5 meter-high ceiling at the gallery entrance, adapting to the gallery’s architecture as the ceiling height decreases. While visually quite stunning, it is important to note that some jellyfish species are poisonous with tentacles that can kill on contact. Bearing in mind that jellyfish come together in blooms more by natural impulses rather than familial allegiance, the artwork’s title takes on an ironic tone and prods us to consider how families are shaped by society. (Galerie Quynh)

Guerrilla Tactics #7

For Nguyễn Quốc Chánh to align his latest series of ceramic sculptures with the idea of a ‘Guerilla’ mentality, is to place them firmly within Vietnamese history and cultural memory. To understand this process, just swap the image of a jungle soldier, living opportunistically within their environment and replace it with an artist whose materials are found and requisitioned. What emerges are assemblages that fuse multiple symbols, removing them of their positions in conventions that produce individual hegemonic meanings. At a glance, it seems chaotic, but the Guerrilla is always forced to deal in chaos until balance is reached. As Chánh himself suggests, balance is the mouse that skitters between conventional lines and the cat is yet to swallow it. (MoT+++)

Wire V

The wire series originated in 2003, and is based on the structure of the Magic Lantern slide projection work, through a mechanical control to repeatedly adjust the focal length to transform a regular piece of wire mesh into a moving image of a dynamic Chinese landscape (Shanshui); to explore how images change the way we see and imagine the outside world. Every single piece of this series of work provides different angles into this proposition. In Wire V, an episcope (Opaque Projector) is used as the imaging principle. The strong light illuminates the mesh wire and is directed through a large camera lens focusing on the image, which is then projected as an exquisite image. With the rapid development of digital technology, the requirement for image resolution continues to increase, from photography, video equipment to display devices. The format from full HD, 2K, 4K or even 8K in the future, exponentially increases every few years. In addition to the promotion of the commercial market, I am curious about the deeper desires that drive the endless pursuit of reproduction far beyond what the body can sense. Or we just change a way in which to pursue a space that is feasible, hopeful, visitable and livable.

 

Adrift in Darkness #3

Adrift in Darkness, an installation composed of amorphous three- dimensional sculptures, saw the artist explore rattan weaving for the very first time, featuring the recent refugee exodus from Africa and the Middle East into Southern Europe.

Dinh Q. Lê: “It takes reference from the images of people packed so tightly on a rickety old boat, floating in the middle of a dark ocean. As one who did the same to escape the harsh Vietnamese communist regime at the time, issues of this mass exodus and the fear and rejection of Europeans have been on my mind lately. I like to think that we are all sitting on a rock and floating in this dark universe. The faces are drawn from images of large group protests from all over the world. As the world’s population grows larger, conflicts arise as more people cross territories. Anger and hatred abound, but we all need to step back and take a look at where we are.”