Heavy Metal Art
http://anyarena.com/ July 7th, 2011
From Picasso’s cubist musical instruments to Wassily Kandinsky’s synesthesia, there is a long tradition of visual artists using music as muse. In a new exhibition that opened Tuesday July 5th at Galerie Quynh, French artist Thierry Bernard-Gotteland takes his cue from heavy metal music and culture to create a provocative installation.
For A Physical Obedience Of A Certain Geometry [Nihil Sublime] Bernard-Gotteland combines text, images, objects and sound to create an environment that is part intimate space, part aftermath of a live concert and part private fantasy. A faux leather bed dangles from the ceiling, stage lights are arranged in a pentagram and the whirring of industrial fans creates discordant noise from a guitar. By evoking our dreams, nightmares and phantasms, Bernard-Gotteland investigates ideas of defiance, destruction, order, control and power.
A lecturer in the fine art department at RMIT, Bernard-Gotteland received his MFA from the School of Fine Art in Grenoble. He most recently took part in San Art’s recent To Ho Chi Minh City with Love.
Heavy metal art
Written by THANH NIEN NEWS 2011 print version EXPAT LIFE, re-posted October 2012 online version
A contorted leather bed dangled from the ceiling, and metal chains arranged in a pentagram were lit up by stage lights. This was heavy metal art and it rocked the art world in Ho Chi Minh City this July.
It was Thierry Bernard-Gotteland’s first solo exhibition held at Quynh Gallery. Gotteland, a French multimedia artist, pushed the limits as you would expect from a heavy metal musician.
The exhibit, A Physical Obedience Of A Certain Geometry, combined text, image, sound, smoke and light. Part of the exhibit was reminiscent of a domestic space, while other areas were like the aftermath of a heavy metal concert.
“There has never been an exhibition like that before in Vietnam,” said Pham Thi Nhu Quynh, the director of Quynh Gallery. “It was poetic, dark, conceptual and in cooperation with nature, with [...]
Mythologies of heavy metal at Galerie Quynh
The Saigon Times by My Tran, July 6th, 2011
‘A Physical Obedience Of A Certain Geometry’ by French artist Thierry Bernard-Gotteland opened on Tuesday at the city’s Galerie Quynh.
Visitors will see his take on the mythologies of heavy metal music and culture. Thierry’s works are loaded with semiotic markers of defiance, destruction, order, control and power where social roles, cultural models and moral values are examined.
Installed in accordance to the principle of golden mean, the works possess a symmetry and harmony that belies their violent and aggressive titles. Incorporating text, image and sound, the exhibition is part intimate, domestic space, aftermath of a live concert and private fantasy.
A contorted bed of ersatz leather dangling from the ceiling, metal chains, paintings of viscous black enamel, stage lights arranged in a pentagram, text from Hollywood scripts fashioned with black duct tape, a tree branch bandaged with tape, the whirring sound of industrial fans whose movement creates discordant noise from a guitar lends the exhibition a sexy, sensual and forbidden atmosphere. The exhibition, at 65 De Tham Street, District 1, is on until July 30.
Saigon soundscape with artist Thierry Bernard-Gotteland
Asia Life Magazine written by Huy Le Khac 2009
French artist Thierry Bernard-Gotteland is fascinated by sounds. His performances are entirely new and sometimes destabilising experiences for HCM City. I attended his latest performance and speak with him about sound ecology, drone music and... guitar fetish.
“Saigonese street noises are for me typical of a booming city. Noise is not yet a concern. Priority is given to development, construction and profit.”
The show begins with the thump of a heartbeat that resonates in the night. A red electric guitar perched on its stand faces a Marshall speaker bathed in an eerie green light. Thierry Bernard-Gotteland (TBG) begins his performance.
TBG grabs the guitar and rubs it with dark, shiny latex tape. The guitar screams, squeals and cries, as if it’s being tortured. The beat changes with a high frequency note, and the smoke machine kicks into action.
There’s just one thing missing. The location is secret. There is no one else around.
The performance—Rhetorical Devices of Surfaces—is, however, being broadcast live on Non Stop Music Planet, a 24-hour online venue featuring artists from around the globe. The macabre scene is recorded by a camera and two mics, recalling the set of a horror film. But here, the victim of this ritual is the electric guitar, the icon of rock music, the symbol of unleashed passion and energy. « It’s an allusion to the bondage ritual so to speak, the fetishism of the rock guitar icon and its destruction, » TBG explains. [...]
Press Reviews
Anyarena.com Article Review (SaigonWebzine)
2008
‘‘San Art Gallery is being turned into a Temporary Wonderful Zone for three different week-long exhibitions. The opening reception for French artist and RMIT lecturer Thierry Bernard-Gotteland on October 3rd turned the space into a smoke-filled, drone-metal, chest-pounding ear-bleeder of an installation/performance called Untitled (D.E.A.F. D.E.C.A.D.E.), title revealing the musical tuning of the bass and of the electric guitar of the video-projection work. Behind this shiny installation black screen like a stage riser turned on its side, Bernard-Gotteland and members of Black Infinity donned monks’ robes and channeled the spirit of drone metal bands like Boris and Sunn O))). Simple video projections of a bass and an electric guitar standing upright, facing the audience, providing a floating moment in-between whereas we are not sure if it is the beginning of a live concert or its end (instruments still plugged with feedback) cut through the fog and re-inforced for the performance by extremely loud guitar, keyboard, and voice. Reception-goers had a choice to make–watch from outside, where you could see the performers in the gallery’s windows; or listen on the inside, where the music was full-volume but the players were hidden behind the screen. Most people chose the sidewalk, but Anyrena said: bring the noise.’’
