The installation exhibition “Chan dung cuoc song tap VI – Cai tui” (literal translation: “Portrait of Life, Episode VI – The bag”) by artist Tran Duc Quy.
As a kid, I was language-delayed, often wandered and played on my own, with various objects, trees, colored chalks and modeling clay. Those maybe the signs of what they call nowadays “autism”. The grown-ups in my hometown, who live simply, don’t understand kids like that, and they often told me: Maybe we have to crack open your skull and tilt it upside down to see what’s in your head? Then I grew up, learned how to speak, and communicate normally with people around me. But! What they said about “cracking open the skull” stuck in my mind even when I grew up. When I was young, I imagined a hundred ways how they (and I) got our skulls cracked open, what was in there, which was both intriguing and terrifying.
Upon learning about art and cultural history, I found out that, if they anatomize the physical body with skin, muscle, blood, bones and hair for medical and psychological research, they have also “anatomized” to find the human soul a long time ago through metaphors and hyperboles. Buddhism said the human body is a “skin-bag full of filth”, several others religions consider the body as a “temporary home for the soul”, waiting for the day to be released back to the universe.
But is that really true? And is that a default? I tried to find the answer with my own sculpture language, and to reply to my own secret question. Because I don’t want to hear those ready-made answers.
The exhibition will open on 9 Nov 2017 and be on display until 14 Jan 2018 at L’Espace.