Artist uses streams of serpentine balloons, plastic to mimic exhaust gas

By Sen    April 5, 2019 | 05:06 pm PT
Serpents’ Tails, a project by an award-winning Vietnamese artist visualizing exhaust gas using serpent-like figures, opens in Saigon on April 19. 
A snap of one of the short time performances of hundreds of scooter-riders with these serpent-like inflatables filmed by artist Uu Dam Tran Nguyen. Photo courtesy of Uu Dam Studio.

Serpent’s Tails will feature a series of inflatable sculptures that will evoke the familiar overwhelming when surrounded by exhaust gas during rush hour in Vietnam. Photo courtesy of Uu Dam Studio.

Serpent’s Tails, or Rong Ran Len in Vietnamese, will feature a series of inflatable sculptures that will evoke the familiar overwhelming when surrounded by exhaust gas during rush hour in Vietnam.

"Each time I stop at a traffic lights in HCMC, I feel like I am transported into a dream involving a confluence of air streams coming from hundreds of motorcycles surrounding me," Uu Dam Tran Nguyen says to explain what triggered his creation of the works.

He imagines the polluted air streams as "dangerous, warm and seductive serpents. "Using exhaust air as a medium, I capture it by using handmade plastic sculptures. I fashioned various colorful plastic sheets into long tubes, furniture, clothing, shoes, gloves, and cubes..."  

The project was first begun in 2015 when Dam returned and started working in Saigon after spending several years in the U.S.

This is his first exhibition of Serpent Tails in Saigon following previous exhibitions and screenings in Japan, Australia, Singapore, and Hanoi.

The exhibition at Galerie Quynh in District 1 will go on from April 19 to May 24.

 
 
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