KVT at White Hot
 | image |
Really Hot Glass Art
White Hot at the National Museum of Fine Arts is a really brilliant way for the Australians to enter into this year’s visual arts arena in Vietnam. Usually we associate Australians with sport, trade, aid, education, films with difficult accents, loud music, that television channel that always seems to be showing funny football and new inventions whenever we channel surf, McLeod’s daughters, beer and robust red wine, Billabong board shorts, kangaroos, and an occasional lapse into culture (which we know they are able to do because we all know about the Sydney Opera House).
White Hot is important because it introduces a lot of us to the idea of glass as fine art rather than functional or decorative factory products. As the informative and handsome catalogue states, glass as a contemporary art medium started to make an impact in the last third of last century and Australia is home to some of the finest exponents of the craft and definitely a world leader in pushing the limits. The work on show is very exciting. My favorite is the installation of hand blown and sandblasted vessels. Its very beautiful and almost what I imagine to be quintessentially Australian. The hour glass and eye installations vied for my top vote
It’s all amazing. The wall pieces you’d love to own (Jessica Loughlin’s are scintillating). The glass houses and associated projections are top notch . Those cloud vessels are to die for and the candy stripe bums and legs delectable. The blown cartoony figures are just about too delightfully whimsical for words and a favorite with the kids (and big kids too).
It’s definitely one of the best overseas exhibitions we’ve seen this year and let’s hope it’s a precursor to more fabulous stuff from the land down under being brought our way. I’d encourage all artists and designers to have a look and wouldn’t it be exciting if a Vietnamese version of the art took root! My intrigued friends are asking if there is a Vietnamese translation of the catalogue anywhere around.
One acquaintance I took along who used to be in love with all those Bohemia Glass shops – the ones that sell those sorts of glass things that you get as wedding gifts and wonder where to put – has now been cured and her glassy horizons expanded….she now wants a Vitovsky – and I admire her new taste.
| Not a reviewer, not a critic, “Kiếm Văn Tìm” is an interested, impartial and informed observer and connoisseur of the Hanoi art scene who offers highly opinionated remarks and is part of the long and venerable tradition of anonymous correspondents. Please add your thoughts in the comment field below. |
I wont even start to defend the Australian art scene; except to say that it is, in fact, as big and bold as its wine, waves and opera house. It is just rather too far away for most people to go and take a look.
What interestest me more is the glass blowing. I have been to several glass workshops in and around Hanoi. I love it, it is fascinating to watch these artisans blow, twist and turn molten glass in a heat that can only be likened to Hell. They are very talented.
Would some one imagine that the some artists and the glass blowers could get together and learn from each other? Would would be involved in an initiative such as that? I do wonder.