Tough-looking, yet elegant metal ribbons spark, spill, move and occupy all corners of the empty space: up and down, left and right, and in countless directions. Through a new series of sculpture works and a site-responsive sculptural installation, Vy Trịnh blurs the lines between the street scene and the exhibition space.
Spanning across three floors of Galerie Quynh, Vy Trịnh’s solo exhibition “ON DA DREAM,” curated by Thái Hà, showcases a series of new sculpture works and a site-responsive sculptural installation. Vy Trịnh does not consider city streets only as pass-throughs, but a site for her to borrow raw materials and create artworks. According to the curatorial text, the artist grinds, bends, wraps, ties, burnishes, and adds bling to raw materials that she found: from motorbike moped chassis to fanguards and electric wires. The dreams represented through her works are “grounded, always in motion, and always at full speed.”
The elegant ‘Chandelier’ (2024), made of found objects and decorated with metallic ribbon and rhinestone chains holding onto each other, appears right at the entrance. Motor electrical wires and rubber cables are often used as an electricity conduit that facilitate lights, but in this work, Vy Trịnh has turned these street-found materials into the lights themselves.
Installation view of ON DA DREAM at Galerie Quynh (Ground floor). Photo courtesy of Galerie Quynh.
Chandelier, 2024. Motor electrical wire, rubber cable end cap, multiple connector block, hex nuts, adhesive, metallic ribbon, rhinestone chain and cable zip ties approx. Dimensions: 420 cm, Ø 120 cm.
Moving forward, we encounter ‘DREAM’ (2024), which marks the starting point of the exhibition title and narrative, as well as the intersection point between the works. The Honda Dream moped chassis remains grounded, while steel bars and steel rods snake and curl aimlessly in space, just like how a motorbike driver moves through all corners of a street in a real life scenario. The works give us a glimpse of the significance of motorbikes in Vietnamese contemporary society, where the famous Honda Dream itself was a dream of countless families and individuals in the time of đổi mới reforms since the 1990s.
DREAM, 2024. Honda Dream moped chassis, flat steel bar, steel rod, custom-made steel frame, brass, flux, Dream sticker and Senko fanguards. Approx. dimensions: 157 × 230 × 208 cm. Photo courtesy of Galerie Quynh.
In Vy Trịnh’s works, something is always moving, and something is always evolving. It is not all about the “finished work,” but the process of “becoming” is the work itself. The process of welding is not highly considered as an art-making process but more of a manual labor, which requires high-level of demanding and precise tasks. ‘Streetlight 1’ (2024) and ‘Streetlight 2’ (2024) capture the fleeting moments of sparkling ribbons of lights that perhaps can be seen at a motorbike repair shop or somewhere on the street. With metal steel bars bursting from one central point into different directions, the artist has turned these materials into works that we can sense and feel at any “present” of our lifetime.
Streetlight 1, 2024. Motorbike disc brake, steel rod, nickel-plated steel ball chain, plastic beads, satin ribbon, organza ribbon and adhesive. Approx. dimensions: 152 × 200 × 195 cm.
Streetlight 2, 2024. Motorbike disc brake, steel rod, nickel-plated steel ball chain, plastic beads, metallic ribbon and silver wire twist ties. Approx. dimensions: 145 × 150 × 138 cm.
Photo courtesy of Galerie Quynh.
The presence of the black-and-white calendar in each room is another highlight, which allows the audience to engage directly with the exhibition. These tear-off calendars, which can typically be found in motorbike repair shops, contain text written by curator Thái Hà. Instead of having the gallery give away exhibition brochures, the audience are encouraged to tear off the calendar papers as they walk through the exhibition and read the text at their own pace to gain a deeper understanding of the exhibition. The act of taking away a piece of the exhibition and taking it home also implies that the exhibition does not end within the physical space itself, but it lives on even after one’s departure.
Towards the end of the exhibition, ‘Knock Sensor’ (2024) resembles powerful flows of energy that are about to explode, despite being constrained within a limited space. These flows of energy, made of flat steel bars, explode and spill over and beyond the room entrance. This site-responsive sculptural installation is no longer a work that remains still for one to simply gaze at it, but instead, it moves towards and surrounds the viewer with speed.
Installation view of Knock Sensor, 2024. Site-responsive sculpture flat steel bar, custom-made steel frame, brass, flux, nickel-plated steel ball chain, organza ribbon, satin ribbon and rhinestone chain. Site-dependent dimensions.
Photo courtesy of Galerie Quynh.
Daily objects and commodities occupy all possible spaces in front of shophouses and pavements, motorbike drivers roam through small alleys to the main street and move in different directions. As the day leaves space for the night to take over, flashing, blinking and sparkling lights gradually make their appearance on the street. The scene brings out these questions: what is the meaning of lights in the context of our urban life, what is so significant about physical and social mobility, and what are dreams made of?
Light is often considered a daily necessity to lead the way through day and night, but it also plays a role in representing the beauty and achievement of urban development. There exist humans who are constantly moving, roaming everywhere, and dreaming of mobility. Through every corner of our lives, the sparkling street lights offer us vision, as we ride on the dream fiercely and steadily, towards a future of prosperity and stability.
“ON DA DREAM” is now on view at Galerie Quynh until September 21, 2024. More information on the exhibition can be found here.
