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WRITER: TF CHAN

The Danish-Vietnamese artist Danh Vō

has been described as a ‘hunter gatherer’,

drawing widely on disparate historical events

and artefacts, and infusing them with an

element of autobiography. He has found

inspiration in Greek and Roman sculpture,

medieval weaponry, the ordeals of Christian

missionaries in Indochina, the Statue of

Liberty, and the personal letters of Henry

Kissinger, each time inding themes

that endure across cultures and epochs.

So it’s itting that Hong Kong’s M+

Pavilion has invited him to pay homage to

the late Isamu Noguchi in an upcoming

show, ‘Counterpoint’. The Japanese-American

sculptor and landscape architect’s work has

become a major inluence on Vō; Noguchi’s

public spaces for children were the blueprint

for Vō’s ‘playscape’ at Korea’s Anyang Art

Park in 2017, and his ‘Akari’ light sculptures

have been installed at the National Gallery

of Denmark for a Vō retrospective (until

2 December). This, however, is the irst time

Vō has done an entire show on Noguchi.

The installation at M+ Pavilion will be

inspired by the scholar’s pavilion and garden,

a leitmotif in Chinese ink painting. There

are eforts to draw a common thread between

historic and modern design – the centrepiece

is Vō’s Dong pavilion, an amalgamation

of wooden structures traditionally created

by China’s eponymous ethnic minority.

Adorned with Noguchi’s ‘Akari PL2’ lamps,

it is surrounded by a selection of the architect’s

works from the 1920s to 1980s, interspersed

with Vō’s own pieces. Meanwhile, Vō’s We the

People, a full-scale reproduction of a copper

fragment from the Statue of Liberty, holds

court in the museum’s backyard.

There are echoes in material and form:

Noguchi’s distinctive bamboo basket chair

(a collaboration with interior designer Isamu

Kenmochi) goes hand in hand with Vō’s

Bamboo, a readymade bamboo birdcage from

Guangzhou meant to symbolise the resilience

of craft in modern China; while the inclusion

of Noguchi’s 1945 sculpture Strange Bird,

with its hybrid silhouette, seems a nod to a

recent, untitled work by Vō, a hermaphrodite

fashioned from two 1st to 2nd century

Roman sculptures (a Venus Anadyomene and

a dancing satyr). Given the parallels between

the two artists – both immigrants working

across geographical boundaries and visual

disciplines – a biographical reading of the

show is inevitable. More importantly, the

juxtaposition of Noguchi and Vō reminds us

that identities are at once overdetermined

and luid, and art, today as in Noguchi’s time,

is ours to deine and reinvent. ∂

‘Noguchi for Danh Vō: Counterpoint’

is at the M+ Pavilion, Hong Kong , 16 November

Photography: courtesy of the artist 2018-22 April 2019, westkowloon.hk

Two of a kind

DANH VŌ’S WORKS,

SUCH AS UNTITLED, 2018,

FASHIONED FROM TWO

1ST TO 2ND CENTURY

ROMAN SCULPTURES,

WILL BE DISPLAYED AS

COUNTERPOINTS TO

PIECES BY ISAMU NOGUCHI

In a new Hong Kong show, artist Danh Vō pairs

and shares to pay homage to Isamu Noguchi

∑ 091

Art