Vy Trịnh, ON DA DREAM, 2024, installation view
ON DA DREAM reviewed by Wong Binghao in Frieze magazine: “The Aspirational Velocity of Vy Trinh’s Sculptures” featured in Exhibition Reviews.
“The 19 sculptures on view are all inspired by the aspirational velocity of the Honda Dream. Forgoing the fastidious preservation and display of the vintage vehicle as a precious antique, more than half of the works incorporate salvaged mechanical parts found in the Dream and other Honda motorbikes. Upon entering the gallery, visitors encounter ‘Fast ‘n Secure’ (all works 2024), a series of six wall-mounted pieces, each built on the kind of rack typically used to affix items to the bike frame. Trịnh has tricked out these banal parts with resplendent bling: ribbons, rhinestones and plastic beads commonly found in the large garment markets in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 5. The spare and perfunctory racks, once relegated to the task of simply securing objects, are made lavish and kinky, with copious ostentatious trinkets dripping precariously from their dazzling new bodies.
Motorbike parts likewise serve as supports for agglomerative additions in ‘Streetlight 1, 2 and 3’ – a trio of sculptures displayed on the floor of the mezzanine. In each work, chunky plastic beads, frilly ribbons and steel chains hang like kitschy stalactites from thin steel rods, which spring from a circular disc brake. The rods have been bent in such a way that each sculpture resembles a sumptuously decorated streetlamp, a symbol of top-down urban development. Bountifully festooned with flashy, mass-produced tchotchkes, however, Trịnh’s sculptures evoke instead the unruly excess of the street.” – Wong Binghao
“The 19 sculptures on view are all inspired by the aspirational velocity of the Honda Dream. Forgoing the fastidious preservation and display of the vintage vehicle as a precious antique, more than half of the works incorporate salvaged mechanical parts found in the Dream and other Honda motorbikes. Upon entering the gallery, visitors encounter ‘Fast ‘n Secure’ (all works 2024), a series of six wall-mounted pieces, each built on the kind of rack typically used to affix items to the bike frame. Trịnh has tricked out these banal parts with resplendent bling: ribbons, rhinestones and plastic beads commonly found in the large garment markets in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 5. The spare and perfunctory racks, once relegated to the task of simply securing objects, are made lavish and kinky, with copious ostentatious trinkets dripping precariously from their dazzling new bodies.
Motorbike parts likewise serve as supports for agglomerative additions in ‘Streetlight 1, 2 and 3’ – a trio of sculptures displayed on the floor of the mezzanine. In each work, chunky plastic beads, frilly ribbons and steel chains hang like kitschy stalactites from thin steel rods, which spring from a circular disc brake. The rods have been bent in such a way that each sculpture resembles a sumptuously decorated streetlamp, a symbol of top-down urban development. Bountifully festooned with flashy, mass-produced tchotchkes, however, Trịnh’s sculptures evoke instead the unruly excess of the street.” – Wong Binghao
September 9, 2024
