Minh Lan Tran

Docent is pleased to present the work of young artist Minh Lan Tran, who just unveiled her show COMMUNICATION GROUNDS, at Parliament gallery in Paris.

Minh Lan Tran's artistic practice is a captivating fusion of painting, writing, and performance, where she intricately explores the intricate interplay and resistance between language, movement, and matter. Beginning with the elegant strokes of calligraphy, writing serves as a foundational element in her creative process. Embracing the principles of choreography, Tran delicately orchestrates varying intensities, resulting in compositions that exude the fluidity of physicality. Rooted in diverse traditions and histories, her art boldly addresses themes of social unrest, channeling profound spiritual-political expressions of protest, including poignant reflections on self-immolations. Through the convergence of these elemental aspects, Tran's work consistently prioritizes embodiment over mere representation.

Minh Lan Tran approaches with caution the idea of image as a representation—a transparent surface revealing an external, prior reality. There is nowhere to rest our eyes, no secure grip on the canvas to extract a clue to its structuring principle. Even what appears as a sign refuses to make sense. The ideograms of Buddhist prayer books which Minh Lan Tran does not read but finds familiar, as well as the inscriptions, such as those that cross extensively Fervor, refer more to a graphic mode of existence than to the assertion of an unambiguous meaning. As for the figurative representations of votive papers, crossed out or defaced, they are now irreducible to individualities. The composition does not arrange itself on the surface of the canvas. It arises from the overlaps and openings of layers—whether light veils or screens of opaque matte—concealing a mystery akin to a rood screen or an iconostasis.

Minh Lan Tran: COMMUNICATION GROUNDS
March 1st to April 13th, 2024
Parliament
36 Rue d'Enghien, 75010 Paris