KVT’s December Diary …10th… The Realities @ Nha san

Investigating creativity @ the top of the tree @ creative city

I used one of the first colder days of impending winter to take a long walk from the Old Quarter to the hip precincts of HCC which has a grand and glorious mission

And is well on the way to establishing itself as the hippest place to be for the young, over cashed smart set and the under cashed, window shopping wannabees

Overall it’s a grand sight for smogged up eyes as it develops and adds more and more eccentric bits and pieces to its grounds and as its lower interior floors gradually fill up with shops and nibbling eateries… with the wide, red, exterior stairway to retail heaven an architectural winner.

Lots of images of the developing HCC here if you haven’t had the energy -or don’t feel hip enough-to adventure into the complex (an adventure I endorse)

Higher levels approached by elevators (if you feel stair challenged) are either awaiting recruits, are gyms and health alternative spaces, or are creative areas for really creative firms and start ups.

The 15th floor was my objective and after being slowed down by my predilection towards voyeurism, got to Nha San Studio’s latest incarnation

And what a perfect spot it is for an avant-garde art space… modern… lots of light… lots of space that can be reconstituted… and for those who get too perplexed by its exhibitions, has fabulous views across the city.

I’m a bit late in the calendar with my opinion bit about the exhibition I’m on about as it’s due to close any day- but with art that makes me think and think again it’s better late than never.

Three young artists had their work up for public perusal and discussion

Thanh Vinh has set up an installation resembling an art reproduction/forging outlet, exampling those that still proliferate in old Hanoi – for the tourist trade – and in new Hanoi for the burgeoning mob of local middle class art buyers.

I’ve always wondered if the clever employees who assiduously copy famous artworks are just naturally talented copyists who immigrate to the city and find fairly stable jobs in the copying industry – or are they the residue from local art schools who haven’t got cashed up families or hard working partners willing to support them in their art careers and/or who can’t get jobs in designer etc… areas

Behind the façade is the copyist’s ambition for a more creative future in the arts – that usually – due to lack of family wealth or industry connections-just fly out the proverbial window.

Very clever Le Phi Long addressed Agent Orange contamination of land around the old American air base in Bien Hoa city in Dong Nai Province where the chemical leached-and still leaches – into underground water supplies and Bien Hung Lake

His is a powerful exhibition that he perhaps hopes will address the dictum that great art should confront us with the realities we cannot face about ourselves

His labeled examples of contaminated earth and water set the scene for wall pieces that confront the realities faced by people who have, or who still reside in the affected area and whose children have been born with severe defects – or prematurely aborted – due to the hideous chemical that was so beloved by the Americans and their Coalition of the Willing during the American War and who have declined any responsibility for its devastating after affects.

Apparently the drawings in black ink on Do paper were instigated after the artist viewed actual preserved, deformed and affected fetus

Leavening the somber atmosphere were the concertina-ed drawings by Ngo Dinh Bao Chau which challenge your visual acuity as they change shape as you move through them.

Not a new idea in the world of art and design but a concept that the artist could enlarge and fill up whole walls of a large gallery so that a wonderful sensation of movement and perception of reality would totally envelope the viewer

Apparently each drawing has five versions

I was unable to access the sound part of the artist’s exhibition so my persona interpretation may be well off beam

NHA SAN IS TO BE CONGRATULATED ON THE QUALITY OF INFORMATION AVAILABLE ABOUT THE ARTISTS WORK AND PHILOSOPHICAL INTENT — which I probably should have paid more heed to as I ingested and regurgitated my own ideas!