KVT – The Animal of the Year at L’Espace
KVT comes eye to eye with a wondrous creation
Saw the PR for the new show at L’Espace and my mind, a bit full of paintings from the past week’s viewing, refused to get terribly enthused….
…so I approached the doors in Trang Tien in the best mood possible to take in the latest work by Tran Duc Quy….the best mood possible because as soon as I caught my first glimpse of the fantastical creation that took up most of the exhibition space, my ennui evaporated in an instant and I was in one of those mind spaces that is best described as total WOW.
It’s only the beginning of the year and I’m putting myself out on a very safe limb and stating that Quy’s totally devilishly brilliant deer will be amongst the top of the art pops all year.
Why keep on rambling on!?
I’ll just show you lots of my imperfect images of the magnificent centipeded animal with its whimsical heads and wary eyes and antennaed listening device and many of you will understand why I spent a long hour sitting on the wide L’Espace stairs staring in wonder and then wandering slowly around the creature getting acquainted …and why I immediately cell phoned some people to make sure they also came to meet and greet it….and why I’ll be making several more trips to its sparkling pasturage…and lots of apologies to readers because I couldn’t stop taking photos of the gentle beast until the battery pack exhausted itself’
L’Espace suits this fabulous creation in that it is a wide space so that you can see it from a distance and close up, from high and low angles and even share a drink and a snack with it. The ceiling of the venue is a trifle too low and the deer could bump its antennae if it snorted or was suddenly startled so let’s hope that the myriad children- who are lucky enough to have wondrously wide eyed and parents who are capable of sharing their joy when they set eyes on the animal and who will take them to make friends with it- will tread around it with the awe and respect and gratitude that it so deserves.
Of course I should have been aware that the artist was never going to let the viewer get away with anything less than awe or grin and delight inspiring response as the following images of previous work show. (all images taken from the googled link because I couldn’t retrieve any of my own).
Congratulations Tran Duc Quy, you marvelously inventive artist., and thanks L’Espace for giving his winsome creation the chance to share its tales with people like me.
The lunar year slithering towards us may be the year of the snake…but somehow for me it will also be the year of Quy’s composite and mirrored marvel
| 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. |
Dear KVT!
Please don’t mixed up the work by Tran Duc Quy with Wim Delvoye when you mentioned on image of “Running Ducks”.
http://kann-fliegen.livejournal.com/250452.html
When I was a wee child my favorite teacher read the class the wonderful stories about Dr Doolittle by Hugh Lofting and we laughed out loud and were full of the joy that a good story and a good story teller can impart.
Of course Dr Dolittle has been properly discredited due to colonial and racist overtones to consider reading aloud to wee bairnsand the movie about the book was too awful for anyone who had devoured and laughed themselves silly over the actual text.
But all that aside, If I was still that 8 year old in Mrs Mark’s class in Aberdeen, so long ago, the animal at L’Espace would perfectly fit into Dr Dolittle’s menagerie of talking animal friends and would probably accompany him home from Vietnam to Puddlby-on-the-Marsh
Thanks@Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng,
Re: http://kann-fliegen.livejournal.com/250452.html
…well…now, this makes sense… !
@ Hamish..
… the sentiment of it all (…which I am partial to, too)… that is… well,… there goes the parallel between what you say and the adventures of Tintin!
Hi Anh Hung
My face is red. I am KVT’s retriever of net images when needed as KVT is a bit of a luddite in this area. KVT said ducks and I retrieved ducks but the wrong ducks. If KVT finds out about my stupidity I’ll probably be beaten for a whole minute with a duck feather and told to stick my head up one of Wim’s duck’s orrifices. But more probably be given a plane ticket to the Museum of Old and New Art in Tasmania to be dumped on by a Delvoye Cloaca. See http://johnmcdonald.net.au/2012/wim-delvoye/ . Anyway, I’ll try to retrieve a different image and get the Grapevine people to fix it up for me before KVT is any the wiser. Lucky for me that KVT rarely checks the opinion bits once they are out in the public domain.
Thanks again for picking up on my stupidity in the realms of art images and thanks for the excellent link you provided.
Yours
Goldie
@ anh Hùng & Goldie:
The picture is replaced now. Thanks anh Hùng for pointing out the confusion and thanks Goldie for your quick action! ;-)
Mien