KVT – Assembling Vietnam through Foreign Eyes

KVT looks in at the results of a residency

A couple of youngish French artists have had a 3 month residency at Bui Art Projects above Tadioto. Emma Perrochon and Frederic Sanchez have had a lot of fun collecting, transforming, assembling and painting all sorts of elements of Vietnamese culture and daily living.

It’s only on for 3 days and closes on Saturday but it’s well worth seeing (and well worth a little sojourn downstairs at Tadioto afterwards)

My particular favorites are the motorbike helmets covered in fragile snail shells and just about as much use on the head as the thin shelled fripperies that so many Vietnamese seem to wear

I also loved the braided white noodles soaking up black ink and the delicate ink painting of same like a meaningful caligraphy scroll

The ladder legs wearing high heels are too nice for words

The delicately mounted lump of concrete is a hoot

And the large votive paper acrylics on canvas work exceptionally well

There’s more of course and if I’ve whetted your appetite to go along and see it you’ll enjoy those as well.

I don’t know if the durian shell vaginas belong to the pair but if they do they are a great talking point and the excitingly daring Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart, Tasmania, would probably love to add them to their collection