VietNamNet Bridge – ‘One Planet’ featuring new works by Nguyen Manh Hung on Thursday opened at Galerie Quynh in District 1.

Visitors stand next the work ‘Go to Market’ by Nguyen Manh Hung at Galerie Quynh in District 1.

A multi-disciplinary artist widely known for his paintings depicting military fighter jet aircraft, this time Hung will present new sculptural installations in this major exhibition that expands on his previous two-dimensional work.

Entering to the gallery, visitors will be amazed by the installation ‘Go to Market’ with a jet plane carrying nylon bags laden with shopping goods humorously morphs a symbol of destruction with conduits of hope, benevolence and joy.

In ‘I’ve Been Here”, Hung depicts Hanoi’s landscape painting industry serving as a platform to present the intersection of given realities with false, utopian panoramas.

Another highlight is ‘The Barricade’ in which the experience of community living inevitably bears witness of conflict and a proposition. In ‘Keep My Planet Clean,’ a rock-like object supports unidentifiable riot people restraining and beating a pig against the ground, denouncing the violence rather definitively.

Drawing from his own personal history growing up in a cramped Soviet-style apartment block in Hanoi, he reflects on the idea of community, the conflicts that exist within and without constructed societies, and the complexities of civic development and individual responsibility. How is a community defined? Is the traditional idea of community just hollow rhetoric or an ideal that can evolve and adapt to modern-day Vietnam? Hung confronts these issues with his trademark irony and humor highlighting the often absurdity of human behavior and endeavor.

Born in Hanoi in 1976, Hung has exhibited at a number of regional and international exhibitions including the Goethe Institute in Hanoi, ARKO Art Center in Seoul, ifa galleries in Berlin and Stuttgart, Stenersenmuseet in Oslo, ZKM Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Hung’s diorama Living in Paradise is currently being featured in the 7th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art at the Queensland Art Gallery - Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane in Australia.

The show runs until February 28 at the gallery, 65A De Tham Street in District 1.

Source: SGT