Exhibition brings prominent Vietnamese illustrators to RMIT

Exhibition brings prominent Vietnamese illustrators to RMIT

A new exhibition at RMIT Vietnam’s Saigon South campus brings together work from three prominent Vietnamese illustrators, as part of an effort to enhance the University’s Design Studies program.

Love Stories is now on display at the Lygon Gallery and features artworks from highly decorated and well-regarded local illustrators, Mr. Phan in the Woods, KAA and Tran Nguyen Trung Tin.

From left to right, Love Stories exhibition illustrators, KAA, Mr. Phan in the Woods and Tran Nguyen Trung Tin with RMIT’s School of Communication & Design Acting Program Manager of Digital Media Martin Constable. From left to right, Love Stories exhibition illustrators, KAA, Mr. Phan in the Woods and Tran Nguyen Trung Tin with RMIT’s School of Communication & Design Acting Program Manager of Digital Media Martin Constable.

RMIT’s School of Communication & Design Acting Program Manager of Digital Media Martin Constable, is the driving force behind the organisation of the exhibition. “We have an illustration stream in the Design Studies program and we’re looking to develop that,” he said.

“Of all the things that our school delivers, perhaps it is true that illustration has the most to offer in terms of locality – Vietnamese illustrators are more unique, more of a distinct class… there’s a very strong sense of the Vietnamese-ness of illustrators here.”

When planning the exhibition, Mr Constable spoke to student illustrators to find out who they follow in the field, and who they see as the “coolest” Vietnamese illustrators. The involved lecturers were also looking for illustrators with interesting processes, as that is a key part of illustrating that students need to learn.

The illustrations express a distinct Vietnamese visual identity while not compromising their sense of the contemporary. The illustrations express a distinct Vietnamese visual identity while not compromising their sense of the contemporary.

“It always pays to listen to students,” he said. “As well as showing the published outcomes of these artists, we also showed their process by which I mean how do you begin a piece, why do you start with pencil drawings; this kind of detail is important for a young professional to get to know because they can be a bit naïve and think that art just falls out of your ears if you think hard enough,” Mr Constable explained.

The three illustrators, for their part, were keen to take part and generous with their time. They even allowed an RMIT team to visit their studios, which in each of these cases is in their home.

“All of that was a bit unusual for them because studio visits don’t feature much in Vietnam, whereas elsewhere it would be entirely natural,” Mr Constable shared.

The title of the exhibition, Love Stories, comes from the sentimentality of the work of the three illustrators, as well as the themes many of the students prefer.

RMIT’s Acting Program Manager of Digital Media Martin Constable said he hopes students take away more than just the fact that they get to see original works from three of their role models. RMIT’s Acting Program Manager of Digital Media Martin Constable said he hopes students take away more than just the fact that they get to see original works from three of their role models.

“Our students like celebrating things, they like drawing pretty girls and romantic images, so love stories seemed like a nice way into this,” Mr Constable said.

In the end, he hopes students take away more than just the fact that they get to see original works from three of their role models. This comes back to the importance of process.

“One artist did a preparatory drawing and it began on a piece of paper that was too small, so he extended it with sheets of paper on the top and bottom, which is a very old-school way of working,” Mr Constable explained. “If that was a digital piece it wouldn’t be an issue, and we want our students to see that because it evidences consideration of format.”

Story: Michael Tatarski 

12 November 2019

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