TRUE BLUE DOGGIE MORPH

The playful atmosphere created by outsized toys on wheels, building blocks and pictures is soon dispelled as one is drawn into the surreal blue-blackness of Mai Nguyen-Long’s passionate engagement with life’s most important issues. Long has created a new world for her mythic mongrels. The meticulously created works of this current installation, ‘true blue doggie morph’, carry multiple layers of meaning, reflecting personal aspects of the artist’s past and present, as well as delving into universal concerns of war and identity.

The presentation of dogs and building blocks on wheels suggests a moving on and potential for change, as does the initial transporting effect of ‘true’ ultramarine and aqua blue. A counter point to these aspects are black boxes and squares that function like full stops. Black boxes and squares, combined with metal locks and wheels that only go in one direction, signal forbidden realms, secrets and unavoidable consequences. Alternatively, they provide opportunities for reflection before returning to the endlessly fascinating composite creatures, many with wings, which suggest another abode, also referred to in the wall works.

As one examines the dogs, other colours, confrontational imagery and ironic textural references become evident. Long employs mythical composite creatures as vehicles to convey her angst relating to issues about identity and trauma. Of particular concern to the artist is the confusion that occurs when political correctness goes haywire. Angry sexed up dogs and painted de/coupling images address her feeling that a perceived victim-hood can become in itself a warped sense of belonging, and over-simplified into an individual’s sexual / social capital.

Everything in this exhibition is painstakingly composed of reconstructed elements thereby paralleling psychological states. Both two and three dimensional pieces are, in effect, transformed landscapes of imagery drawn from a wide range of sources. Inspired, as the artist states, ‘by childhood memories’, especially toys on wheels made by her father, this complex work weaves personal, national and universal themes into a space where things are never quite what they seem and certainly not as simple as ABC.

Dr Ann Proctor, Art Historian, July 2010

Click here to view Mai Long's Biography (PDF).

Click here to view previous paintings and drawings by Mai Nguyen- Long

Click here to view previous sculptures by Mai Nguyen-Long

For further information, please email ng@ngart.com.au