KVT – Rainbowed Ramblings

KVT in the pink and loving it.

I’m going to stick my neck out and see what happens. Hopefully not a total decapitation.

Also…I know it’s stupid for an amateur to take photos of excellent photographs so I apologize and hope you got to see the real thing.

The photography exhibition, “Pink Choice“, at Goethe is truly interesting in many ways.

First, it chronicles a single moment, usually of tenderness and affection, between two individuals who love each other, emotionally and probably sexually. The images rarely touch on the erotic or the sensational. They show no really overt displays of passionate love. It would be very difficult to call them voyeuristic. They are mostly interior shots, with one exterior in river shallows being a crowd pleaser.

Second, had the beautiful photographs been of heterosexual couples in similar affectionate or domestic displays they may have passed unnoticed and not had the small hype that has apparently generated around the exhibition in some of the mainstream media. Looked at impassively without the charged air of sexual difference, many of the images could be of close friends, family members etc.

Third, had the exhibition not been focused on by gay and lesbian activist groups then the exhibition would probably have been a successful art show that would have earned a lot of praise for the actual photographs but not for the contrived purpose that some ascribe them. As it is now, the show appears to be something of a cause celebre….even bigger than a storm in a teacup… with some activists determined that it can help their cause in the area of civil and human rights.( and good on them I say!).

The heterosexual photographer, young Maika Elan (Nguyen Thanh Hai), stays away from overt displays affection and passionate love in her images having a sensitive empathy for the subjects in her photographs .

Recently a newspaper photograph of two females french kissing at a rally in Paris demanding equal marriage rights for same sex couples got enormous and sensational, coverage (mostly of outrage)whereas had it been a young heterosexual pair the photographer probably wouldn’t have pointed a lens their way.

One wonders the response had it been two heterosexual geriatrics sharing a tongue kiss.

Apparently Maika’s image that raised a lot of ire was of an older man portrayed half naked and being cradled tenderly by his much younger partner. Conversely, were the gender roles changed, would the ire have been less? Had it not been labeled a homosexual show, could the photograph have been read as  father and son? How much public approbation would have raised its head had the couple been a young man with a much older, wrinkly woman…….or vice versa. Scenarios could be varied with gender, race, age, religion etc.It would make for good sociological study.

If an artist’s work becomes the springboard for controversy then it’s often a good thing for the artist’s reputation and sales and if it changes negative attitudes of a few viewers in a positive direction, then that’s a nice result too. Mind you if the result for the artist is incarceration or alienation then the means to the end may have been futile.

Back to the exhibition itself as photographic art. The more I stayed with them the more I really liked them. They have a nice naturalness and the use of light is very effective. The viewer’s eye is cajoled with simple paths that lead into the prints. They are at times tender, joyful, mundane, and even tense.

The photographer spent time with over 70 same sex couples inHanoi, Danang and TP Ho Chi Minh gaining their confidence and approval and taking many photos. Names of the subjects  chosen and their location at the time they were photographed are displayed near each print.

The show at Goethe used the space as well as it could. Overall the effect was a bit claustrophobic and how nice it would be to see the images in a couple of large galleries with breathing space between them. The grouped sets of small photographs were yelling out for a resizing and equal rights with their larger peers.

I’m glad that I wasn’t part of the 300 strong audience on opening night. Then the  claustrophobia would have been palpable.

The artist’s talk supported by an an activist panel was stimulating but mostly appeared to be preaching to the converted with some TV cameras and photo journalists around perhaps to pick up on any bits that could become salacious, objectionable or controversial for their mainly conservative (or still in the closet)  viewing or reading audiences.

Enough of rambling on through the shades of color, emotion and ostracism that make up the lives of gay and lesbian singles and couples inVietnam.

If the only outcome of the activism is that more homosexual people are aware of support agencies… and aware that they are not  isolated specks of foam in an ocean of hostility and aggression and prejudice, then it was a great show. And the same goes for the photographs.

Personally I enjoyed the photographs more each time I visted them. Similarly I enjoyed being a witness to the heroic air of activism that rolled and swarmed through and around them

Some of the photographs were previously exhibited in theUnited Kingdomand it would be interesting to know of the critical attention they received there and if there was any reaction to their gay/lesbian theme.

Thanks heaps Goethe for sponsoring one of the most talked about and most seen art events of the past couple of years.