HCMC – Saigon drawing response

03 – 08 Mar, 9 am — 9 pm daily
PI-CHANNEL shop, upstairs
31B Le Thanh Ton
District 1, HCM City

After getting off to a terrific start last week, A window until the rains come: albb Open Studio Program continues with Australian artist, Philip Faulks.

During his five previous visits to Saigon, Philip Faulks filled his sketchbooks with images of the city. Rather than sketching on site, he would work from memory, inspired by the architecture, objects or details that he had seen in recent days. Sometimes these resulted in hybrid drawings, sometimes with imagined elements added in. These sketchbooks, which are somewhat like a visitor’s book of HCM City, will be in the suitcase of his mind as he travels to take part in A window until the rains come. Developing some of these sketches and sourcing new imagery in the Le Thanh Ton area around the open studio, he will explore the memory and experience of an expanding relationship with this city.

A series of large-scale drawings will be pinned to the walls, which, during his days of working in the open studio, will evolve into interconnected drawings, incorporating both literal and metaphorical elements that will combine into a loosely woven narrative of a visitor’s emotive response to the city of Saigon.

Philip Faulks was born in England and arrived in Australia in 1976 where he lives in Melbourne with his wife and family. He teaches Visual Art at Chisholm Institute and has held and been included in various solo and group exhibitions.Philip first traveled in Vietnam about a decade ago. This will be his sixth visit to HCM City, where he has been building friendships and professional relationships. He has a long-standing interest in Asian culture and in Vietnam is attracted to the continuously evolving, dynamic character of this youthful nation. In 2007 he first worked with albb on the Bao Loc Project, for which he was official observer.

Please visit albb’s blog for more information on the program and participating artist, or follow this project on albb’s Facebook page.

a little blah blah (albb) is an artists’ initiative that since 2005 has operated as a platform for contemporary art through a wide range of channels including projects, exhibitions & events, screenings, talks, a residency program, internships and an open-access archive of art books & catalogues. Our program has evolved in a pioneering spirit, in response to the gaps and needs of the Saigon art scene. Since 2008 we have re-focussed our program to presenting one major project each year, capacity building and the ongoing running of albb Reading Room.