KVT – COLLAGE and COMMENT

Vu Pham Truong Minh had two very full and fussy social comment series painted on Do paper scrolls. Interesting to read and interpret but quite overwhelming. Probably they’d work well if displayed in complete isolation. The type of stuff you need to settle in comfortably, lie back on a few soft cushions and slowly devour and see what sense can be made.

The two works that steal the show are by Nguyen Dinh Vu….perhaps this is because they aren’t at all fussy, because they are pretty minimal, because they don’t require much initial cogitation, because they have simple and recognizable subjects, or perhaps because the wide and dramatic push and pull of the paint sucks you in. Whatever…they seemed to be the favorite of all the viewers I questioned during my two visits with best of all shared evenly between pigs and ducks. Red against black and white is a visual drawing card.

I enjoyed Luong Trung’s ‘No Argument’. Its subject matter of fierce defiance in the midst of swirling traffic is a familiar sight on any busy street in Hanoi.

Pham Huy Thong has a very busy – in fact too busy – canvas that appears to be a fore-thought to his very appealing and dramatic ‘Hand’ series that was recently and successfully exhibited in Singapore. Titled ‘Fairy Princess and Little Prince’, it’s imbued with Thong’s biting social commentary. I liked the allusions but found it too difficult to stay with for long stretches at a time.

‘Destiny’ ( I hope I’ve translated accurately) was eye catching in a cerise way. Is it implying that bright and striking red is on the wane as dominant symbolism as people grapple with burgeoning ideas of what they think constitutes happiness, prosperity and future direction? Sometimes I can’t keep my mind from running away to the realms of the surreal and ridiculous!

Not a brilliant exhibition by any stretch of the imagination and not a precursor to what may be the next best thing on the art horizon, but ok to be in the middle of.