KVT – Homage to Yves

Went in high spirits to Phuong Vu Manh’s body painting performance and found the whole experience a bit yawnsome… and… well… Tepid.

It was definitely a take on a 1960 Yves Klein performance for one of his Anthropometric series when Kleine had the audience in a gallery in formal evening dress while a string ensemble played Kleine’s composition ‘The Monotone Symphony’ which is one chord sustained for 20 minutes followed by silence. Meanwhile the nude models went about their body painting work in patented Yves Kleine blue (and created canvasses now worth in the millions of dollars).

Yesterday the audience was in a lush garden in Gia Lam with the audience in casual gear (strung with cameras) while Tri Minh Doan played electronic compositions in the background. Anh Kanh performed a choreography while Manh painted a semi nude model in technicolors and sort of anthropometricked her on a sheet of canvas.

Here’s an Yves Klein report card on the happening:

outrageous… not at all
exotic/erotic… could have been
entertaining… well!!!? At times
voyeuristic… hardly
artistic… perhaps, at times
interesting… could have been… though the herds of clicking camera owners must have thought so…
as performance art: luke warm
the music component: easy on the ears. A bit like an Enya backup or musak in a steamed up, co-ed bath house
choreography: sort of