MC alum explores ‘A Quest for Empathy’ in current Blackberry Farm exhibit
Minh Hoàng ’16, whose exhibit “A Quest for Empathy” is on display at the Blackberry Farm Gallery at the Clayton Center for the Arts through Jan. 29, knew he wanted to evoke the emotions of the novel “Call Me By Your Name” for a part of the exhibit.
How to do that using 3D technology proved a challenge — but by building on the foundation he laid as a design major at Maryville College, combined with his graduate work at the Savannah (Georgia) College of Art and Design (SCAD), he succeeded not only in meeting it, but also turning it into something of a love letter to the city that’s been his home for the past several years.
“The first time I read the book was about four years ago, and what led me to this project is, how can one transfer an experience to a different form and still preserve the feeling of that experience?” Hoàng said. “How can I translate the feeling I had when I read this book into a 3D environment so that when people look at it, it still feels like they’re reading the book, even though they’re looking at 3D objects?”
The story of the novel, written by André Aciman and published in 2007, is set in Italy and tells the love story of two expatriates who fall in love. A design major at MC, as well as an international student from Vietnam, Hoàng first read the book while exploring his identity as a gay man, he said, and the tenderness and beauty of the relationship therein spoke to his heart.
During his final year at SCAD, enchanted by the city of Savannah, he began to wonder: What if the characters lived there? What would their house look like? What would their conversations consist of?
According to his website, “Call Me By Your Name” is “typographic experiment that explores the manifestations of a dual dialogue through historic wallpapers and ornaments.” The house “is designed to be opened and closed like an actual book,” and “each baluster of the railing system on the balcony (is) created from actual railing designs in Savannah with the mission to create a readable title of the book on the front.”
“I wanted to preserve the feeling of the book with the physicality of Savannah, and I had to figure out how to combine the subtle communication with the very vibrant, in-your-face feeling of Savannah into one thing,” he said. “The way it’s designed, the balcony actually spells out ‘Call Me By Your Name’ in the railing system.
“And then when you open it and read it from left to right and top to bottom, each floor is one chapter, so you’re preserving the reading experience on a 3D object.”
“Call Me By Your Name” is part of a larger assemblage of Hoàng’s works on display through Jan. 29 at the College. The exhibit, he said, is a literal illustration of the ways designers can build empathetic communication with audiences through different explorations. According to Hoàng, the exhibit is designed to study “the most shared human experience by intimately exploring an organic adventure of one’s awareness to build a relationship with the world” through a combination of both psychology and graphic design.
From the subtle to the vibrant, the collected pieces represent a broad spectrum of his interests, as well as the advancement of his education at SCAD.
The building blocks of his art, and of the career that will take him to New York City for a new position starting in February, began at Maryville College, he added.
“When I think back to the design program at Maryville, it gave me the foundation of the visual language that everybody needs to know,” he said. “It prepares you for the future and gives you the base, and it gives you the opportunity to grow to love the field and really dive into it in order to achieve that growth after graduation. You use whatever you learn to move yourself ahead, and they give you a big push.”
A reception for Hoàng will take place at 6 p.m., Jan. 28, in the Blackberry Farm Gallery, located in Building B of the Clayton Center. The gallery is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Admission is free, and masks are required inside the gallery.
