Art
#found objects
#Kumkum Fernando
#mythology
#sculpture
#Vietnam
“Koha, Manike the Maniac, and Lomba.”All photos © Kumkum Fernando, shared with permission
Directly totemic and automaton-like, the deities inbuilt Studio REBORN in Saigon are sure by mystique. The characters are scions of the Vietnamese metropolis, rising from doorways, home windows, tabletops, and deserted structure that Kumkum Fernando collects, cleans, and repurposes as figurative sculptures. Whereas the discovered supplies might have misplaced their authentic paint or patterns, the artist faithfully honors this historical past, typically recreating motifs and coloration palettes mirrored on the ultimate types.
Born in Sri Lanka to an vintage collector, Fernando incorporates this background into his items, each by way of the act of scouring building websites, resale retailers, and streetside trash bins for wooden and different objects utilized in his apply and thru adornment. Lots of his sculptures embody parts of folkloric tales and temple work that infuse the items with a religious, legendary high quality and reference Sri Lankan tradition.
Fernando’s newest physique of labor abandons the modern, boldly vibrant types of latest years to as a substitute give attention to a gritty, post-apocalyptic narrative. “I began out by making notebooks and toy vehicles utilizing outdated Vietnamese constructing components earlier than transitioning to shiny figurative items,” he tells Colossal of his evolution. “I started to overlook the textures and colours I used to work with. That’s once I determined to return and incorporate facets I liked from the start into this sequence.”
On view now at Jonathan Levine Projects, the characters of Publish Colonial Rainbow Punks “are intergalactic swashbucklers—half gangsters, half legendary beings.” Like his earlier works, they invoke East Asian historical past and mythology by way of the lens of structural particles like French shutters and window frames, though their geometric our bodies are embellished with mottled, worn paint and what seems like rusted metals. Hailing from a distant future whereas constructed with supplies of the previous, these figures recontextualize time and house and are mentioned to have reached Earth searching for Princess Izzah 281, their most troublesome mission but.
For extra of Fernando’s improbable sculptures, go to his site and Instagram.
“Koha”
“Weeping Orchid”
Element of “Weeping Orchid”
“Gentle Boss”
“Ilo Galaxy”
“Jackfruit Jenny”
#found objects
#Kumkum Fernando
#mythology
#sculpture
#Vietnam
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