Almost serving as the centrepiece of the exhibition NGUCHONOBAY, Nguyễn Đức Đạt’s installation – incorporating, amongst others, a banana tree, a plastic chair, the remains of a torn photograph board, and a homely, sparkling carpet the shape of the dead body of a rat run over in traffic – reinforces the themes present throughout the other artists’ works: a second life for abandoned, forgotten objects and materials, a playful stubbornness to not take oneself too seriously, and consequently a dissolvement of the ego, an awareness to the events happening around and at the same time a tranquil, ostensibly detached outlook to life.
"Don't be sad, Superman!" - in collaboration with Nguyen Kim To Lan
A permanent fixture of Cu Ru (Sao La’s shared studio space which also doubles as a bar in the evening) and originally made by Nguyễn Đức Đạt to be exhibited at the collective’s Art Walk series of events in 2015, for NGUCHONOBAY the tin-foiled and mirroring ‘Superman’ sculpture has a new friend in the form of a foam lady sculpture. It is the contrast between the act committed by the pair and the seriousness of the gallery’s office corner (with the sculptures being positioned in front of the latter) that highlights most clearly the playful site-specificity running through the exhibition.
A permanent fixture of Cu Ru (Sao La’s shared studio space which also doubles as a bar in the evening) and originally made by Nguyễn Đức Đạt to be exhibited at the collective’s Art Walk series of events in 2015, for NGUCHONOBAY the tin-foiled and mirroring ‘Superman’ sculpture has a new friend in the form of a foam lady sculpture. It is the contrast between the act committed by the pair and the seriousness of the gallery’s office corner (with the sculptures being positioned in front of the latter) that highlights most clearly the playful site-specificity running through the exhibition.
