KVT – Boom!
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I liked the Bomb installation at the Viet Arts Center by Pham van Truong. It’s a little under resolved and perhaps a bit over-splattered with representational blood, but it’s effective. I don’t know if I connected with it because of my early morning experience a couple of weeks ago. I was having a bowl of breakfast Pho in a small market in Quang Binh province when an unexploded ordnance (UXO) carelessly but purposefully littered around by the US forces during the American War exploded in the vicinity.
The concept would have been powerful and thought provoking if installed in a public building as though in situ.
A few years ago at an art biennale in Prague, it was unnerving to come across fake, unexploded devices casually placed throughout the gallery spaces. Truong’s installation, developed further, would have fitted in well especially if shards of glass littered the surrounds like body piercing shrapnel.
| 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. |
