Jan 27, 20192 min read

Creating art from Triac's trash for Exhibition

Updated: Feb 3, 2019

Triac Composites takes great care to reduce the amount of waste in the production process. Reducing the amount of waste is obviously good for both the environment and the bottom line - but inevitably, there is still some waste.

Richard Streitmatter-Tran creates art from Triac trash. Photo by Richard Streitmatter-Tran.

Enter Manufacturing Creativity!

Manufacturing Creativity is a UNESCO and University of Sydney led collaboration between Vietnamese creative practitioners and manufacturing organisations in search of "sustainable cultural, social and industrial innovation".

Triac Composites' General Manager, Phil Johns speaks with artist, Richard Streitmatter-Tran, on the video being played at the Managing Creativity Exhibition in HCMC.

Triac Composites was delighted to join the program and was paired with the highly talented Richard Streitmatter-Tran.

We invited Richard into our factory. There, he roamed around, looking to find trash to turn into art.

Quickly, Richard focussed on the plugs that would otherwise be destined for a meeting with the sledgehammer (to build moulds for manufacturing composite parts (eg boat hulls), we first need to build a replica of the final product which is the plug. From the plug, we are able to build the mould which is then used to manufacture the final product. Once the mould is made, the plug becomes redundant and is destroyed accordingly.)

Richard reserved a section of a boat hull plug for a sculpture that he would name Bigmouth Strikes Again.

Bigmouth Strikes Again

Having worked with marine vessels before, Richard has always been interested in the biomimicry (how objects are often inspired by forms found in the natural world).

This contemporary design of the boat hull has three sides as opposed to the two often found in Vietnamese fishing vessels and reminded the artist of a large smile and his earlier research into the diverse masks in Indonesia.

Overlaying a simplified mask-design, inspired by those found in Bali, the mask was finally carved out of the boat hull. The final painting attempts to emulate the inking styles found in comics.

Bigmouth Strikes Again - Triac Composites' General Manager with Richard Streitmatter-Tran's piece of art at the Managing Creativity Exhibition. — Bigmouth Strikes Again - Triac Composites' General Manager, Phil Johns with Richard Streitmatter-Tran's piece of art at the Managing Creativity Exhibition.

The title of the work comes directly from The Smiths' song, Bigmouth Strikes Again from their album, The Queen is Dead.

On one hand, the title refers to the current era where “speak softly while carrying a big stick” has been inverted and the “big mouth” is the preferred mode of communication - from Trump to Duterte.

Bigmouth Strikes Again also refers to the local species of big mouth sea catfish (Ketengus Typus) found in Southeast Asia.

Manufacturing Creativity Exhibition

To view Bigmouth Strikes Again, or the works of art from the other projects, a Manufacturing Creativity Exhibition will be held from 21-29 January 2019 in HCMC as follows: