Minh Dung Vu, Green XXI, Green XXII, Green XXIII, 2024. Acrylic and silk on canvas. 200 x 330 cm | in. Courtesy of the artist and Gate Gate.
Gate Gate Gallery
September 22 - October 16, 2024
When I feel homesick, I watch documentaries about Vietnamese history. Once, I read a research article on the Nguyễn Dynasty and Vietnamese customs by Phan Kế Bính. I delve into the histories of my family and country, listening to Chầu Văn music and the spiritual chants of the Vietnamese Tam Phu belief system. Engaging in this research draws me closer to Vietnam, easing my sense of loss. On Tết (Lunar New Year), I light an incense stick, and as its scent lingers, it stirs memories of my days there. I ask myself: 'How can I transcend the boundaries of what I was taught, such as techniques in visual arts?' While living there, I hesitated to try new things. I kept wondering what method or form of expression I should choose in my work, frequently recalling memories with my grandmother, a tailor. This serves as a starting point, using textiles as a medium to connect my art to personal history and cultural identity.
-Minh Dung Vu.
Minh Dung Vu’s exploration of identity through Vietnamese traditions shapes his solo exhibition 'Around the White Road,' marking his first show in Vietnam. This site-responsive installation features fifteen works that investigate space, memory, and materiality, stemming from pivotal experiences: a 2018 visit to Bridget Riley's expansive London studio, where Vu felt his breath echo, and his encounter with Gate Gate's unique curved architecture. These moments catalyzed his creative process, leading him to capture visual elements and evoke sensations of absence within his compositions. By reinterpreting 'Around the White House' as 'Around the White Road,' Vu intertwines the gallery space with the viewer’s journey, merging object and environment.
Over the past decade, the artist has created a body of work characterized by tactile surfaces, natural color tones, and organic forms. His move to Germany spurred a practice of fabric manipulation, altering how viewers perceive size and dimension while maintaining a connection to Vietnam's textile traditions. A consistent theme emerges in his recent pieces: large-scale canvases with minimalist compositions, often featuring a single, organically shaped fabric element against a neutral background. These works convey cultural, historical, and environmental narratives through their materials and forms rather than explicit imagery. His creative process starts with conceptualization and detailed sketching, then selecting materials—primarily silk, linen, or chiffon—and creating custom dye mixtures using natural pigments or indigo. As he stretches dyed textiles over frames, Vu acts more as a facilitator than a dirigeant, allowing the fabric to partially dictate the final form as it dries before being sewn onto canvas.
"The artist controls about 50% of the process; the rest is dictated by the work itself," Vu explains, encapsulating his philosophy of shared authorship.
Vu’s process-based practice, rooted in the global 1960s shift toward dematerialized and conceptual art, engages with Vietnam’s post-colonial avant-garde movement, negotiating indigenous craft traditions with international movements. The use of fabric carries cultural resonance and serves as a tactile medium for exploring displacement and memory, emphasizing direct contact with the material on the canvas rather than through a secondary medium like a brush. His work combines Eastern and Western dialogues, where relinquishing control in the creative process metaphorically reflects the fluidity of identity and cultural hybridity in a globalized world.
The exhibition begins outside, at the gallery’s façade, with Echo from the Lake, a site-specific work produced for this presentation. Two floor-to-ceiling canvases, partially veiled by draped orange cloth, face the glass frontage, creating a layered visual experience for viewers both inside and out. Referencing the Vietnamese architectural tradition of connecting indoor and outdoor spaces, the piece offers a contemporary reinterpretation of this cultural concept. Natural light casts shifting shadows through the work, dynamically altering perceptions of depth, materiality, color, and form. As visitors transition from exterior to interior, the work foreshadows the exhibition’s recurring themes: the blurring of boundaries between object and environment. Nearby, Green XXI, Green XXII, and Green XXIII are installed at right angles along the curved wall. In each, two silk panels are seamlessly joined, with textured green fabric flowing across the canvases and around sharp corners—challenging the traditional flatness of painting and invoking Vietnamese textile forms to explore space and dimensionality. On the second floor, a canvas suspended from the ceiling by wooden supports dominates the space. It hovers in dialogue with the room’s raw industrial elements—exposed ductwork, concrete floors, and stark white walls—framing the work as both object and spatial intervention.
From a distance, Vu’s textile works may resemble abstract color field paintings, but closer inspection reveals intricate dimensionality. Shifting hues and organic forms evoke geological landscapes while reflecting deeper intersections of history, identity, and memory. This exhibition not only marks a significant milestone in Vu’s career but also contributes to the broader discourse on hybridity in contemporary Vietnamese art, offering an introspective view into the liminal spaces artists navigate between cultures.
Text by Karlie Ho
