Artist Talk with
Jerry Troung, October 2nd
4:45 pm at Boyden Gallery
If I was a curator I might not want to get one his works, at
least not If I expect it to be temporary. This artist has a sometimes mischievous
sense of humor. He has works like
“Flaccid” and “Manifest Destiny/Reveal the World” that have (and it would
appear were meant to) left their mark on their former residences. Flaccid, a
massive sugar sculpture intended to comment on the lack of a soul and so many
pieces pandering to a professor at the school, melted and left a sticky spot on
the gallery floor. The later was a sharpie installation, a material that is
more than a little difficult to cover up. Of course this permanence is an
aspect of the art, an interesting concept to all those who are not the gallery
assistant who has to scrape sugar off the floor or find the budget for enough
paint to cover up sharpie. Unless he cleaned up the sugar himself, in which
case I applaud his dedication to making a statement and do not envy him the
task.
Untitled (Bien Girl) (Good/Sea/Change)
In this piece, we see both the artist’s love of polysemy and
the way he draws inspiration from history. It is inspired by immigration of Vietnamese
boat people and what happened to the stolen women when the Thai pirates
attacked their boats. The polysemy of the word “Bien” means good, sea and
transformation.
This is piece itself, is comprised of 5 paintings and a
destroyed mannequin. The five paintings are divided as thus, 4 square paintings
arranged 2x2 painted with bands of red of varying widths and edge quality, two
of them appear to be almost completely red, while the other two have three
alternating bands of red and white running vertically through the canvas. The
fifth painting is a portrait rectangle and much larger than any of the square
paintings. It faces them on the opposite wall and has three thin red bands
running the vertical width of the painting. These paintings symbolize the flags
of Vietnam and the United States. In the
middle of the room is a mannequin in two parts. One part is a slender and nude
female torso, the other is a pair of legs, one unnaturally stiff and up right,
the other almost sliced off and centered on the main piece. The mannequin
pieces are a roughed white with a red line dividing each part in half. This
mannequin symbolizes the Vietnamese girls who were stolen and sold into the sex
trade. They lie abandoned between two sides.
Lớp/Vỏ (Layer/Shell or Crust)
This is another piece with many meanings and many inspirations,
a common theme in Truong’s work. This piece was first inspired when the artist
saw stories of bodies washed up after a Japanese tsunami. It then evolved to
include being a remembrance of his uncle who died on the boat to America. He talks about it on the sight discussing the
many ways the past somehow “refuses” to stay buried. The piece is made of mud,
wood and an outfit consisting of a Lacoste polo, Levis and a pair of converse. It
is made to resemble an excavation.
See Also
December 14, 2012, Carving and Graphite on a Wooden desk,
Jerry Truong 2013
In Waves, graphite on bristol paper, 2010
To Cryptics and Cynics, A Modest Proposal For a New Kind of
Revolution, Vinyl on Polyester film, 2013
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