Sky's the limit for Monash artist
The work of Trinh Vu is influenced by the organic as well as the digital. Photo: David McArthur - Parallax Photography
Large-scale contemporary sculptures, inspired by nature and produced using cutting-edge digital technology, hang cloud-like above the heads of visitors to a Melbourne gallery of 19th century landscape paintings in the latest exhibition by a Monash academic.
Blue Skies is the work of Trinh Vu, a practising artist and senior lecturer in the Faculty of Art & Design, where she specialises in 3D visualisation and design.
‘By calling my exhibition Blue Skies, I wanted to bring the outside inside. I wanted to reinterpret the theme of landscapes for our time,' Ms Vu said.
The theme of contrast evident in Blue Skies is typical of Ms Vu’s work. She explores organic structures using the newest technologies. She is inspired by minute detail but often works on a large scale. Her sculptures are ambiguous, yet familiar, blurring the boundaries between the real and the artificial.
‘Organic structures and spirals are the starting point for my creative exploration. But my work extends these concepts to explore the overlap between the real and the artificial, and how we often don’t differentiate between the two,' Ms Vu said.
Ms Vu’s previous work has mapped the structures of seed pods and pine cones. Although inspired by nature, her sculptures are unique, being neither an exact copy of nature nor a completely original imagining.
Using advanced 3D-modelling software, Ms Vu generates a digital image of her sculptures, which are based on naturally occurring structures and mathematical sequences.
Ms Vu then maps the hundreds of modular components that make up each of her structures, using a laser-cutter to cut each unique piece from paper or plastic. The final step is to fold and interlock the components together by hand, via a painstaking system of tabs, twist ties and fastenings.
‘My sculptures are influenced by the characteristics of digital technologies, but these tools do not dictate the outcome.’
Blue Skies is the result of Ms Vu’s Georges Mora Foundation Fellowship. As the inaugural recipient in 2007, Ms Vu took up a studio residency at Cite des Arts, in Paris. A chance encounter with a gardener left Ms Vu with a bunch of sunflowers, providing her with the starting point for the organic forms of Blue Skies.
Blue Skies is at the State Library of Victoria until 31 July.