‘The Life of Snails’ solo exhibition by Phuong Quoc Tri, which opens this weekend at Cactus Contemporary Art Gallery, is a bold statement by the Saigon-based artist.
Tri is more renowned for portraits featuring lonely characters in grayish canvas like monologues. However, this time his show features two installations and four paintings made of mixed media, presenting a totally different side of Tri.

“Artists need to discover new ideas and creativeness as well as genres, and The Life of Snails is seen as a new step in my art career,” said Tri, adding that the show is inspired from a time when he saw a snail trying to escape from a pond.

Guests are immediately hit by snails, painted red, trying to crawl out of a 200-snail basket. They seem to be putting great effort into their escape from the cramped space in the basket, but the sluggishness of the snail species is hindering their movement with destinies out of their hands. The contrast between the white and the red, a group of snails and individual snails together with the crawling traces, as well as effects of the lighting, will have visitors pondering that the fate of the snails is maybe a statement about the fate of humans. The work looks like a scene in slow motion from real life.

“Snails are a species known for their small size and slow movement as well as their resignation. But the red snails of Tri seem to express another character from inside rebelling against an old and predetermined future of some people in this life,” said artist Luong Luu Bien. He added that maybe this is also a metaphor for Tri’s attitude with his new art expression.

Another installation makes people picture a battle for survival between snails as a fight to the death. In which, some win and some lose.

Meanwhile, some paintings also depict images of snails in monotone white bringing a cold and blue feeling for visitors, once again making them think about the harsh lives of humans.

The show runs from March 10 till 30 at the new address of the Cactus Contemporary Art Gallery at 17/12 Nguyen Huy Tuong Street in HCMC’s Binh Thanh District.

SGT