KVT – Engaged with Boxes

KVT into miniaturizations and eruptions

Vu Kim Thu just gets better and better. She’s lucky in that she’s landed quite a few overseas residencies but she’s also lucky because she soaks up  the vibes in those foreign places and connects them to her art practice,

Thu’s present exhibition at L’Espace is an excellent example of the latter luck and as her most recent residency was in Japan, you can pick up a decided Japanese feel to her latest installations.

She calls her work in wooden boxes 3D maps and they are indeed that…maps of landscapes mixed with architectural maps.

At first viewing I read them as stage sets ready to populate with dancers or actors and on second viewing, when I was more alone with the boxes, I read other tales and interpretations into them. Some intend a literal translation

Others take you deep into inner abstract places that keep on drawing the eye to partially revealed wonders. On the second day that I was with the pieces it was really amazing to see the prolonged time that many observers spent gazing into the maps, and also how some young photographers were delving into the secrets that may be hidden from the naked eye

Like so much of Thu’s recent work where she mianiaturizes her drawings, the audience is asked to connect in an intense way once they have got their minds around and away from the initial, overall wow factor.

In the L’Espace installation of her box sets the viewer has to interact at a variety of body bending levels. Should they be installed as I would like to have them, set into a false wall whereby the boxes would be hidden, they’d also be set at various levels to encourage the same varied interaction

Thu calls her exhibition ‘Space Minimization’ and she obviously is hoping that the viewer will feel a quietness and peacefulness as they look into them

The paper medium that Thu uses in her drawing and cut outs are Vietnamese xuyen chi paper and Japanese washi paper

OF course its the creative lighting of the sets/maps/landscapes/interiors that increases their allure…I also like the way in the way that your eyes engage but when your fingers or your camera lens attempt to go deeper, a clear wall blocks your progress. Sensible yet also adding  a deliberate sense of mystery

The amazing solidified eruptions along one wall, contorted cones made of paper, carefully drawn upon, are like landscape details from a  fantasy story. One could see them as parts of an animated movie. I really, really like them.

It will be a deservedly popular exhibition and as it’s in place for a month it gives you lots of time to engage with it and enjoy.

The clear images of opening night c% Dan Drage. The rest c% KVT’s inadequate camera skills