KVT – Functional Poetry in Marble

KVT and a show not to be missed @Art Vietnam because they have one of THOSE exhibitions up and running that can’t be faulted. It’s a total dream!

It’s an exhibition that the young man, pictured below in 2003 on the shores of Westlake, the proud owner of a gleaming, new Honda Dream, would likely identify with.

With his dream between his thighs the young man could be transposed as Rivera’s ghost rider in his diaphanous silk paintings that float ethereally from the gallery ceiling

Though Rivera has the image of a Xe Om driver asleep and dreaming along the length of his “Dream” as one recurring focus of the exhibition

Rivera has used the concept of the Dream as a vibrant Vietnamese historical icon that resonates with anyone old enough to remember when the Cub, then the Dream, and then the Wave were the aspirational English words that affixed like super glue to Tinh Viet.

Some humble Honda Dream models from the 1990ies have become so iconic in some circles that, restored and polished up, with an ubiquitous wire carry basket hung in front, they have progressed from the 1990ies dream of functional upward mobility, keeping one step ahead of the “Nguyens” to a two thousand and teens face book dream of fashionable one-upmanship.

Just imagine a scene recreated from those dreamy days: three fashionable young ladies, sunsilked long hair streaming like dark rivers from unhelmeted heads careering laughingly through red traffic lights with nary a car in sight-apart from an occasional Ha Noi Taxi

All of this Honda Dreaming in Art Vietnam makes you want to take a functional plastic stool from one of the available stacks, perch on it and take in Rivera’s sculptures… that is until you do a double take and realize that the stools have been carved from marble

Rivera has deconstructed a life size Honda Dream from the era when the Dream added considerably to an owner’s economic lifestyle, and reconstructed it sections in the white stone from Da Nang

These previously mundane articles are exceedingly beautiful.

When mounted on bases that suggest traditional and mythological, nuances the dream pieces seem to be culturally at home

The exhaust pipe becomes a Tortoise

The petrol tank a cloud, the patched seat a lion,

Then there’s a phoenix, a dragon and the tire is a perfect wave

For a lot of us the image that comes to mind when we think about sculpting in marble is a dust covered artist, hammer and chisel in hand, a la Michelangelo

But when you enter a partitioned area and see a Video presentation, you realize how the artisans at a factory near the Marble Mountains, Da Nang, use modern electrical equipment to saw at and polish the cool stone blocks to produce modern marble artifacts and artworks… including Jorge Rivera’s exceptional dream pieces

The juxtaposition of the Vietnamese mythological dreamtime with late last century Honda dreamtime makes fascinating viewing throughout the gallery.

FOOTNOTE: Way back in the 1940ies Soichiro Honda had a dream to build complete motorbikes and, hence, many of his earlier motorbikes were called Dreams. In most south east Asian countries his moped 100cc Honda Dream became the day dream focus of millions. It’s the millions of dreamers in Vietnam that Rivera’s exhibition honors.

A DEFINITE MUST SEE FOR ALL SERIOUS – AND NON SERIOUS-VIEWERS OF EXCELLENT ART AND PARTICULRLY FOR HONDA DREAMERS