Riders’ Arc

2024
motorbike, sun-protective garments, textile silicone
Installation view Fallen Angels, Grotto, Berlin, 2024

In Tra My Nguyen’s solo exhibition, Fallen Angels at GROTTO, vignettes of the artist’s childhood in Vietnam are distorted into a hybrid narrative where travelling through the streets of Hanoi with relatives has become a catalyst for ideas of colourism, mobility and gender politics to arise. This concept takes inspiration from the female motorists culture in Vietnam, where women cover their entire bodies in garish colour clashing garments to protect their skin from the sun‘s harsh rays. Their generic floral patterns and easy-to-wear style moves quickly from design to vendors, relentlessly meeting the latest trends and exaggerating notions of mass-production. The garments engage both literally and metaphorically with notions of speed: skirts clip and wrap-around at the waist. Jackets zip all the way up to the head – fast, quick, and easy.

Using these garments as a starting point, Nguyen manipulates her materials to re-imagine the body, removing the clothing from its context and repurposing its function towards a new object. In Riders’ Arc the emphasis shifts from the physical body to that of a vehicle, its ergonomic form producing certain curva- tures: the seat becoming hips; its handles, arms outstretched and strong. Stretchy viscose is draped and collaged around the vehicle‘s body sealed at the seams with textile silicone, forming a protective layer that entombs the structural entity beneath.

Words by Brooke Wilson

Photos: GROTTO, Berlin

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