Two of a kind
in a new hong kong show, artist Danh Vō pairs and shares to pay homage to isamu noguchi
Danh Vō’s homage to Isamu Noguchi
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 finding themes that endure across cultures and epochs.
So it’s fitting 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 influence 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 first 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 efforts 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 fluid, and art, today as in Noguchi’s time, is ours to define and reinvent.∂ ‘Noguchi for Danh Vō: Counterpoint’ is at the M+ Pavilion, Hong Kong, 16 November 2018-22 April 2019, westkowloon.hk