Hidden Moment from the East – An Internet Troll
07 July – 07 Oct 2023
CUC Gallery
A4703 (Floor 47), Keangnam Hanoi Tower A, Duong Dinh Nghe St., Me Tri, Tu Liem, Hanoi
From the organizer:
Cuc Gallery is pleased to announce Hidden Moment From The East: An Internet Troll — a solo exhibition by the emerging painter Nguyen Ngoc Vu.
Based in Saigon, this is Vu’s first ever show at Cuc Gallery in Hanoi, and it constitutes the second installment in his ongoing Hidden Moment series. The first installment was presented by Cuc Gallery at SEA Focus art fair in Singapore, with the title Hidden Moment From The East: The Internet Has No Filter. In this new chapter, the artist dives once more into the morass of internet culture, combining both Eastern and Western art historical idioms with the cutting-edge cringe of the day.
Painted mainly in acrylic on canvas & on shaped panels with the artist’s signature pastel colors, the works features characters such as “Pepe The Frog” dressed like a confucian scholar, and “The Simpsons” style cartoon characters posed in the manner of a bathing scene in a classical painting — and most frequently of all, we see a small boy appearing over and over again, evoking cherubs in the western painting tradition, and the iconic laughing toddler that appears in festive Chinese and Vietnamese New Year merchandise.
For many years Vu has operated under the moniker “caubetho” — a colloquial way of saying “Little Boy” — so the repeated image of the chubby child can be read as the “meme” embodiment of his nom de guerre. This is a mischievous juvenile “everyman” from the margins of your local temple mural — a vaguely evocative symbol onto which the artist can project his own imagined tales, much like the adaptable “Pepe” meme, which has become a relatable “everyman” figure for internet nerds.
Being essentially self-taught online, he lets his imagination run wild, mashing up high & low, traditional & contemporary sources with impunity.
Stay tuned for more Hidden Moments, because this internet troll has a lot more in store.
