Jorge Rivera

The Dream

The Dream is a personal attempt to portray the spirit, the essence and the strength of the Vietnamese character. My intention is to get close to who the Vietnamese are as human beings, their dreams, identity and aspirations, using the intimate relationship they have with their motorbike as the tool to explore and expand on their persona.

The show consists of a total of nine marble pieces, a short video projection, three large paintings in silk and a selection of sketches, collages and storyboards of the pieces and the film.

The sculptures are variations and extrapolations of different parts of motorbikes. The sculptures work as a dismembered part of a larger body. The body of the Honda Dream, the parts are somehow different stages of dreaming. The parts made in marble aim to emphasize not only the obvious physical dimension with those parts but also the more unconscious, emotional and spiritual content hinted in the material of the white marble, burnt wood or stone. The titles of the pieces and the stands are abstractions of mythological motives constantly active in the Vietnamese heritage, traditional art and craftsmanship.

The film intercuts footage of the making of the marble pieces (a moon-like scape of the workshop covered in white dust) with footage that the artist has gathered from his motorbike journeys throughout the country with some references to the mythological animals and elements staged in popular celebrations such as the lion or the dragon dance.

The large paintings on silk portray the body of the motorcyclist without the actual motorbike. The bodies painted on translucent silk are like ghosts or dreamy images floating and being driven in the space by a non existent vehicle.