Thu - Van Tran. Write As Beasts Scream at Night

Thu-Van Tran presents newly produced graphite drawings and ceramics addressing landscapes altered by bushfires, resource extraction, and colonial violence in Vietnam and Australia. About Thu-Van Tran (* 1979 in Ho Chi Minh City) lives and works in Paris. Her work draws connections between the political entanglements of nations and colonial legacies, traces of which remain inscribed and visible in many places: in language, bodies, and landscapes. At the Kindl, the artist presents her most recent works, some created specifically for this exhibition—including ceramics, painting, and drawing—which address the ecological and traumatic consequences of colonialism in Vietnam and Australia, and their resonances in Europe. ›Write As Beasts Scream at Night‹ invokes the forces of resistance in nature, which quietly but persistently rebel against the wounds inflicted by human hands. With her newly produced graphite drawings from the ›Trail Dust‹ series, as well as ceramics created in Australia, Thu-Van Tran draws attention to landscapes permanently altered by bushfires, resource extraction, and a history of violence. Among her references is the Western Australian region around the ›Golden Mile‹, land claimed by various Aboriginal groups and marked by vast open-pit mines. Tran thus deepens her reflections on fire as a destructive as well as spiritual and transformative force, and on conflict-scarred land and the memory inscribed within it. ›Write As Beasts Scream at Night‹ is co-produced by the Kindl—Centre for Contemporary Art and the French Academy in Rome—Villa Medici. Supported by the Office of visual arts of the Institut français Germany and the French Ministry of Culture Read more Toggle Drawing Painting