KVT – Black as Black as Black as Black
Tran Huu Nhat comes from Hue and does wonderful things with charcoal and his very long pieces (not enough wall space at the exhibition space to display them) are indeed wonderful. The artist in his Black series deals with the ills that are put upon Vietnamese society…mental illness, poverty, pollution… ills that are, perhaps, not sufficiently dealt with or swept under convenient chieu mats.
And the self portrait as shaman is a show stopper
Lacquer artist Chu Viet Cuong has a series of delightful lacquers that purposefully pose Vietnamese females in very provocative, sensual, even erotic poses that satirize and complement the way in which females in West are so often portrayed as sex objects rather than real people. He explains that he sees this as an awkward phase in Vietnam’s rush towards modernity.
At first glance the pieces have a purely decorative look to them…but this intentional prettiness does not mask their underlying truths.
The awful truths about war become passe in all countries where ‘the Warrior as Hero’ is put forward as an official propaganda line and becomes an iconic message (as it certainly does in my native land).
…yes, I agree to an extent that images on show would like to “provoke”, so do the artists… who seem to think that just slotting themselves and their work under the label of “controversy” will send the crowds and the dealers running to their show…
In fact there is little or nothing provocative in their ideas…
I found no such a thing in neither work on show.
…and yes… one can take up an issue in general with the naive and immature way of portraying femina by the young generation of Vietnamese artists…it betrays an inner insecurity and translates into a shallow thought… examples of that in the show…
…also, one can take up an issue with the emotionally empty titillating decorations depicting drug use…
as you say: “…nicely downplaying the sordid underbelly that its reality.”
… and yes, this artists do have a problem and it’s not “controversy”, it is their thinking…
Although I appreciate work which does not attempt to imitate LCD (lowest common denominator) icons of Vietnamese kitsch – examples of which abound in almost every commercial gallery in Hanoi – the work in the Black on Black show is simply unsuccessful. Not persuasive, not communicative, not seductive or expressive in any artistic sense. The works are flat and lack any reference to current or past artistic sensibilities.
Local artists may well benefit from more stringent critiques to challenge their artistic development.