BackArts & Culture » Khô Mực Studio Releases Surreal Calendar Featuring Art From 12 Local Artists

Khô Mực Studio Releases Surreal Calendar Featuring Art From 12 Local Artists

For the 2023 calendar, 'Robots vs. Flowers,' twelve young Vietnamese artists were each given a month and tasked with creating an image responding to the question: "Can technology and nature survive together?"

Some of the artists created fantastical narratives for their months. For example, May's artist, Same, depicted a future war between a flower army and an invasion of robots. Meanwhile, for September, Cao Quốc Huy imagined a world where humans had gone extinct and robots revived them in the same way humans are now considering bringing woolly mammoths back to life.

The full pages for May (left) and September (right).

For June, Tùng Anh pictured a future dream world where a lonely robot wanders around amidst poisonous flowers.

Some of the artists took less narrative-driven approaches and filled their two-page spread with flowers and trees growing amidst wires, nobs and droids as exemplified by Jim (January)'s depiction of a plant sprouting from a robot's unplugged head.

Nguyễn Thanh Vũ offers a harmonious response to the prompt with a blooming tree dropping petals on a sidewalk traveled by an advanced bot for August.

Given many of the month's abstract interpretations of a calendar as a functional object, one isn't likely to use Robots and Flowers to keep track of appointments or schedules, but it's pretty enough to hang on one's wall as a work of art. 

Thong Dinh's July would brighten up the dankest wall space.

All the pages are printed using Khô Mực Studio's riso ink derived from soybeans. The bright, low-cost ink strikes a balance between expressive raw aesthetics and affordable production. Since its founding in 2018, the Saigon-based studio has been using risograph printing for a variety of projects and collaborations with local artists, including an art exhibition featuring works responding to ghost month

Ngọc Hải's December showcases a greener future Saigon.

The Riso Calendar 2023 is a limited product. You can view the entire collection and purchase it at the website.

Related Articles

in Music & Arts

Designer Lucia Phạm's Animated Video Refreshes Tết Wishes With New Visuals

To Lucia Phạm, a young graphic designer and illustrator, creating a personal project for the Lunar New Year has become an annual tradition. This year, instead of crafting static images, Lucia went all...

in Music & Arts

New Board Game Set Puts an Aesthetic Feline Touch on Bầu Cua Tôm Cá

In two weeks’ time, we can temporarily put down our laptops, shut away documents, and set up holiday auto-replies to slip into a bánh chưng-induced coma for a week.

in Arts & Culture

[Illustrations] Local Artist Turns Saigon Street Snapshots Into Wholesome Postcards

If you’ve been fond of our Saigon Postcard series, you’ll come to love these wholesome illustrations by a local comic artist.

in Culture

[Illustrations] The Tet Board Games That Help Foster (and Destroy) Family Relations

There’s nothing quite as satisfying as beating all your siblings and cousins in a heated game of cờ cá ngựa. 

in Culture

Nha Trang's Whale Worship Festival, as Portrayed in This Stunning Graduation Project

The Cầu Ngư Festival, a whale-worshipping tradition that takes place every February on the lunar calendar, has become a source of inspiration for artist Tường Vân’s graduation and illustration project...

Paul Christiansen

in Music & Arts

Saigon Designer Envisages Classic Vietnamese Transportations With Some Pizzaz

What if your motorbike had rocket propulsion?

Partner Content