Rough-hewn Gods Emerge From The Streets Of Vietnam In Kumkum Fernando’s Growing World Of Futuristic Figures — Colossal
Art
#found objects #Kumkum Fernando #mythology #sculpture #Vietnam
« Koha, Manike the Maniac and Lomba. » All images © Kumkum Fernando, shared with permission
At once totemic and automaton-like, the deities built at the REBORN Studio in Saigon are bound by mysticism. The characters are scions of the Vietnamese city, emerging from doors, windows, tables and abandoned architectures Kumkum Fernando collects, cleans and reuses as figurative sculptures. While found materials may have lost their original paint or patterns, the artist faithfully honors this history, often recreating patterns and color palettes reflected on the final forms.
Born in Sri Lanka to an antiques collector, Fernando incorporates this background into his pieces, both through the act of scouring construction sites, resale shops and roadside rubbish bins for wood and other objects used in his practice as well as through the ornament. Many of his sculptures include elements of folk tales and temple paintings which imbue the pieces with a spiritual and mythic quality and reference Sri Lankan culture.
Fernando’s latest body of work abandons the elegant and boldly vibrant forms of recent years to focus instead on a gritty, post-apocalyptic narrative. “I started out making notebooks and toy cars using old Vietnamese building parts before moving on to glossy figurative pieces,” he tells Colossal of his evolution. “I started to miss the textures and colors I was working with. That’s when I decided to go back and incorporate things I’ve loved from the start into this series.
Viewing now at Projects by Jonathan Levinethe characters of Post colonial rainbow punks « they’re intergalactic swordsmen, part gangster, part mythical being. » Like his earlier works, they recall East Asian history and mythology through the lens of structural debris such as French shutters and window frames, though their geometric bodies are embellished with mottled, worn paint and what appears to be rusted metals. . Hailing from the distant future but built with materials from the past, these figures recontextualize time and space and are said to have reached Earth in search of Princess Izzah 281, their most difficult mission yet.
For more of Fernando’s amazing sculptures, visit his site AND Instagram.
« Place »
« Weeping Orchid »
Detail of “Weeping Orchid”
« Soft Head »
« Galaxy Ilo »
« Jackfruit Jenny »
#found objects #Kumkum Fernando #mythology #sculpture #Vietnam
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