Art lovers are in for double the fun at the ASU Art Museum, as two new exhibits — from two artists hailing from opposite ends of the globe — were unveiled earlier this month.

And while the shows — “Blue Memory: Paintings by Tran Trong Vu” and “Personal Doping, Video Installations by Agnieszka Kalinowska” — are also at opposite ends of the art spectrum, museum-goers are sure to appreciate both eclectic offerings.

“Blue Memory” features paintings on transparent plastic by Vietnamese artist Tran Trong Vu. The son of a revolutionary writer and poet of the ’40s, who lived under virtual house arrest for most of his life, Vu’s works — many of which stand nearly 10-feet tall — have definite political overtones.
In fact, according to Dr. Nora Taylor, the ASU associate professor who co-curated “Blue Memory,” Vu’s father’s writings and sketches, which the artist discovered after the elder Vu’s death in 1997, are the inspiration for the exhibit.
One untitled piece — which, like most of the paintings, is suspended from the ceiling so that visitors can examine both sides — features a giant portrait of a Vietnamese person whose hair is comprised of thick black letters repeating the phrase, “Made in Vietnam.” As in many of Vu’s vibrant pieces, blacks and bold reds help emphasize the artist’s political perspective, and his ideas pertaining to the westernization of Vietnamese people and culture.

The highlight of the exhibit, however, is “Blue Memory,” which features a sea of portraits of seemingly identical Vietnamese men, hung individually throughout the exhibition space. After a closer examination, though, the viewer will notice subtle differences in the men’s eyes, the part of their hair and the way the shadows fall across their faces.
And even those less detail-oriented museum-goers can’t miss the one portrait in color (the others feature men in black ties, whereas this one features red neckwear); the portraits which feature a back and a front (most feature a front view of the man on both sides of the plastic canvas); and the two to three men with surgical masks on their faces.

According to text provided by Taylor, which supplements the exhibit, the men are meant to look generic — like “individuals who sacrifice their identities for the collective spirit of a group.”

“Personal Doping” — located just upstairs from “Blue Memory” — features several video installations by Polish artist, Agnieszka Kalinowska. This is the first U.S. solo exhibition for Kalinowska, whose work is concerned with “human behavior in extreme situations ... and (trying) to freeze short moments of extreme physical and mental tension.”

In her main installation, though, it seems like it’s the viewer’s mental stamina that’s being put to the test.
The piece, which features images projected onto a giant screen on the floor in the middle of the otherwise empty room, shows one man operating a jackhammer. The unmistakable sounds of a jackhammer grate throughout the space, thanks to two speakers on either side of the room. Then suddenly the one jackhammer operator becomes 10 and the noise and commotion intensifies, becoming nearly intolerable.

If you’re not paying close attention, you’ll miss it as the men — who all feature numbers on their backs — begin to walk out of frame. The sound lessens and then we’re left with the lone worker. And then the cycle begins again.

“It’s definitely different,” says museum-goer Alicia Caldwell of Tempe. “And it makes you wonder whose behavior is on exhibit — the construction workers or ours.