KVT – Exquisitely Dolled Up

KVT let loose in Hanoi’s best little purple jewellery shop.

There’s a week left if you want to catch one of the best art shows of the year…..if you haven’t been there already (it’s been on since 8 Sept) then you should make sure you put it near the top of your must do list!

JAPAN FOUNDATION….corner Quang Trung and Tran Hung Dao.

If you’ve got kids (well, not the ankle-biter size ) then take them along too, as it’s delightfully kid viewer friendly….but not for kids who are at the ‘I’ve gotta touch it’ stage.

Don’t be put off by the part of the title that says “Art Dolls” but make sure that you take heed of the subtitle: Silent Voices.

The fabulous little creatures on show have been hand crafted by 27 year old Tran Thu Hang and there’s a cunningly displayed video to demonstrate just how she does it. And it’s the fabulous little creatures that make you go WOW.

These are no dolls, they are wonderful sculptural pieces that have been displayed diorama style in see-through perspex boxes, each portraying a frozen moment in time.

The exhibition space is set up like an upmarket jewellery shop and the scenes placed on individual plinths as if they were special jewels (as they are!) Background music being played suggests that they are music boxes, and so wonderful they are, you expect that they will all leap into action at the turn of a magic key.

The individual works are all so delightfully precious that I feel they should be encased in the most delicate crystal.

My favorite scenario is ‘Torture’ where the supermonster toddler is being chased with food by a frazzled Mum who is being chased by a demented and fed up Dad. Just too good to be true….but true to life!

Most little scenes are slices of every day Vietnamese life, sometimes whimsical, sometimes poignant, sometimes humorous, but always human.

Do I hear you say CUTE? I guess that banal and predictable label could be applied to some, but for me I banished the word from my mind as soon as I encountered my first little creature. You’d have to be slightly deranged if you came away from Tran’s little jewellery shop with the ‘C’word foremost in your adjectival description of it.

Tran has given a lovely nod to Vietnamese history with an effective scene that emphasises her skill and makes you wish that she’d be given a commission to thus record more.

She’s also, generously, sensibly and beautifully, given her sponsors a nod with three gorgeous Japanese scenes with my favorites being the domestic and the shopping paused moments.

If, like me, you belong to a generation or demographic who learned to ride a bicycle by practising on a full size model, then the box that contains the Flower H’mong child precariously astride a man’s bike will bring back good, if sometimes bruised and scraped, memories. 

The exhibition is part of the Japanese Foundation project called ‘Young Talent Series” that provides the opportunity for a young Vietnamese artist to have their first solo exhibition….and they chose well with Tran Thu Hang……and you’ll certainly agree when you go to see it……..be rather remiss to miss it.