masturbation trilogies

2017

installation

neon light

Cam Xanh -- collector, trader and maker of art -- is a trilogy in herself. With this solo, brashly entitled Masturbation Trilogies, the artist embraces the hat-trick with a series of old and new works, each pre- sented in a set of three.

Three acrylic planets contain the leftover porridge (chao) she co-cooked with local fellow artists during her Art/Chao performance in 2016. Three handmade knock-off Birkin bags feature images of Western art in a shameless celebration of kitsche. Three tinted acrylic urinals hang on a pink wall like a whim- sical set of decorations, alluding to both Duchamp and Gober. Three canvases bear silk cocoons en- graved with Vietnamese golden values “ freedom - independence - happiness”.

What does it mean to reveal in self-pleasure, which the artist admits to be a public act of masturbation in a private gallery? Is this what the climax looks like - an explosion of uninhibited desire and concealed self-deprecation? What aren’t we seeing? Is narcissistic pleasure the ultimate reward of art, or is it mixed with an undertone of pain?

The video installation “chain - chance - change”, the opening/end scene of a 2700 hours duration per- formance, is definitely an interesting knot to be un-tight. Last but not least, a triptych prints of the word “interesting” itself, with its light-up and black-out versions is an open-end of the solo..

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