One bead on a low red table, and nine others in another. Oops, two have fallen on the greenish floor, with the beads differently coloured. Is there some form of cryptic code to all these, a pseudo I-Ching formula of balancing, or some games children play? Le Thiet Cuong likes to play with the geometric contradictions of squares, circles and triangles. The odd placements of the legs of the tables skews the perspective, upending the way to view. And is there another table behind, unlacquered in red? Is this a conundrum that is never meant as one? Everything is Reductivism, consistent with the self-taught Le Thiet Cuong's oeuvre of awkward reality? Artist-sculptor-photographer cum curator, Le Thiet Cuong makes child-like works of everyday life and ordinary utensils, sometimes with odd simplistic figures. Though schooled in set design and animation at the Vietnam State Film College in Hanoi, Le Thiet Cuong opts for visual art in practice, with an esoteric bent. His father is filmmaker-playwright-poet Le Nguyen and mother cinematographer Do Phuong Thao. He was in the army from 1980-1984, working as a cartographer, sometimes a farmer. He first made his mark when he illustrated the poet Nguyen Du's epic poem The Tale of Kieu (Truyen Kieu), and had his first one-man show, The Pastoral, in 1991. He has since also exhibited outside Vietnam – Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok and Zurich. He has also done sculptures, mainly of animals.