When does a piece of functional design become art and vice versa? Gazing long enough at a hook on the wall, noticing its graceful curves, bright colors, and simple flourishes in shape, will have you unsure where the border between the two lies, or if there even is one.

Where Design and Art Converge

Austere metal hooks, hooks that called to mind ancient money, a hook that resembled an accordion, and a few that invited more intimate readings: the hooks came in all shapes, sizes, colors, and mediums, all of which asked viewers to reconsider what a simple object could say or hold. Stepping into the front room of Gallery Medium on the opening night of Three Weeks of Design (3WOD), shattered Saigoneer’s conceptual understanding of a hook. We could stare at each like a work of art, or hang our coats on them. 

As part of 3WOD’s desire to engender pride and elevate expectations for domestic creatives, this year’s focus on “The Culture of Design” included a competition aimed at empowering local artists and designers. More than 200 submissions came from professional designers, independent artists, and self-taught creatives who offered their take on the humble hook which were udged across five categories:  Best Design, Best Concept, Best Fabrication, Best Sustainable Practice, and People’s Favourite. The entrants on display not only revealed the city’s design expertise but also fostered conversations surrounding important art and design principles, serving as an educational opportunity. 

The sense of wonder and appreciation fostered by the hooks continued through the rooms that contained 3WOD’s ceramics and furniture exhibitions. There, we were thrilled by pottery that resembled a stack of Saigon’s iconic plastic stools and a piece of furniture that featured the sharp angles and edges of a cut diamond. Others reflected more global aesthetic influences, such as Modernist, Art Deco and Oriental designs. This conscious assemblage of distinctly Vietnamese and international approaches, many by local brands and designers such as Oho Studios, NOM, Laita, and Exutoire as well as international names, revealed how Vietnamese talent deserves to be considered on par with any in the world. Attendees to 3WOD came away from the month-long event with the understanding that they can look to local designers when beautifying their living spaces, confident in both the quality and the originality of their creative practices.

In total, the event featured work from over 40 designers, 15 ceramic artists, and local and international furniture brands. Citing renowned international events, such as Art Basel, Milan Design Week, and NYCxDESIGN, Gallery Medium’s founder, designer Coca Huynh, explained that “art and design have now merged and complement each other wonderfully instead of being two separate entities.” The event showcased the synchronicity between these fields while highlighting Vietnam’s talent and uplifting young, local designers. 

Gallery Medium Speaks for a Larger Community

Since its founding last year, Gallery Medium has sought to be a nurturing site of creativity. The welcoming villa space that conjures feelings of visiting a private home is committed to exploring local and global art and design traditions that uphold, evolve, and subvert norms and expectations. True to its name, exhibitions have included paintings, photography, sculptures, installations, research-based practices, and design objects. The shows invite attendees to join the dialogues about identity, inheritance, expression, and purpose that surround and uphold the works. 

Gallery Medium’s embrace of a diverse range of expressions is understood via a few recent exhibitions. Arlette Quỳnh-Anh Trần, for example, offered questions and speculations about the convergences of sci-fi, technology, and political identity via assemblages of animation, 3D design, historical archives, and architecture in her recent Gallery Medium exhibition, “iii. x_Unrealized Utopia.” Contrasting these experimental and oftentimes challenging works were those of painter Huỳnh Công Nhớ. His exhibition this past June fused filmmaking experiences and a religious background in the form of soothing, daily life scenes rendered in acrylics. Meanwhile, just before Tết, “Thẩm / Thấu, Thưởng” opened to introduce guests to 50 ceramic works by Nguyễn Quốc Huy, Trần Nam Tước and HuongColor. Organized in collaboration with VietnamColor, it investigated how traditional and folk materials can be re-imagined in contemporary forms.

While seemingly unrelated in subject matter, medium, aesthetics or influences, these and other Gallery Medium exhibitions are united in their efforts to spotlight and platform local creatives and designers while serving the broader community. Practitioners, enthusiasts, collectors, and students benefit from spaces like Gallery Medium and events like 3WOD that foster dialogues around specific pieces as well as global legacies, trends, and traditions in the art and design world. Those who attend an event can leave inspired by the work being created around them and optimistic about the collective creative energy bubbling up throughout the city.