KVT – Childhood Revels and Adult Hi Jinks
Friday morning I was ambling past the Viet Arts Center in Yet Kieu and, out of the corner of my eye, spied some wonderful stuff. So I parked the Honda and rushed in.
They’d hung the paintings and were still ripping the plastic sheeting off them and unwrapped or not I just felt topsy turvy with utter delight.
It’s one of those exhibitions that shrieks ‘FUN,FUN. FUN’ and it certainly is. Its color, its wild brush strokes, its irreverent text, its crazy grinning fiberglass sculptures really knock your socks off. It takes you back to naughty childhood or, still better, undergraduate parties at art university. You’d never suspect that this artist is serious! But he is and he’s very, very good.
Hours later and I’m still grinning as widely as those sculptures and the figures in the paintings.
The exhibition is titled ‘To He’ and refers to those sticky rice dough figures that are sold on sticks outside parks and at children’s events. Once upon time they were of characters from Vietnamese myths and legends and now the makers are cunningly incorporating modern cartoon characters…and luscious roses for lovers. And can you , if you’ve got a skerrick of youthful fun and joy in your soul, ever walk past a To He modeler and not want to buy a handful? I can’t resist rampant dragons!
Immediately the artist suggests that we approach his work from the aspect of childhood (not the namby pamby sort that modern parents seem to want to envelope their kids in….but the wild child bit that has the most fun and enjoys the most intimated terror…..Brothers Grim meets unadulterated Vietnamese kids tales.)
Le Kinh Tai is 49 and lives in Ho Chi Minh City. I’ve seen bits of his work before and thoroughly enjoyed…..but a whole, rambunctious exhibition is a flamboyant festival.
The just-too-good, over-the-top sculptures are repeated in lots of the swirly twirly paintings.
I’ll be back to ponder what it all may mean…. find out if there is a subtext hiding somewhere….but for now I’m just enjoying, enjoying, enjoying! And SO SHOULD YOU!
It’s all too gorgeous for words! So I’ll stop and let the images do the talking.
ON FOR A WEEK and opened a couple of hours after I got tangled up in it and could hardly tear myself away.
| Kiem Van Tim is a keen observer of life in general and the Hanoi cultural scene in particular and offers some of these observations to the Grapevine. KVT insists that these observations and opinion pieces are not critical reviews. Please see our Comment Guidelines / Moderation Policy and add your thoughts in the comment field below. |
