Great Vitality: Old work and leftover materials were renewed through ripping, cutting, painting, and covering. A found, basic bench was modified with the addition of constructed pieces to become a shelf. A numbingly seductive, loud, youthful, and blinding color palette masks over the work that juts and wedges into itself. With these display tactics and surface manipulations, the mass constantly displays and hides, covers and reveals, performing like a strip tease but always evading direct eye contact. There is audible screaming and energy within restrained, nameless designs and object-products. Controlled haphazardness and calculated color arrangement make for aware compositions that extend into photo documentation and gives sense to commercial advertisement. At the peak of vitality, the frozen mass huddles together with heavy makeup and fake smiling in a celebratory photo shoot before their ascension to heaven!
Mel Nguyen is currently a student at Minneapolis College of Art and Design.