SILK PIECE SERIES, 2018 - PRESENT
My work explores the concept of cultural identity, integration, and displacement. My studio practice is influenced by Vietnamese cultural heritage and background in fashion design. I use silk, a cultural-rich material, as a metaphor for my personal identity.
Silk has an important role in Vietnamese culture as well as the traditional art. After I’ve moved to the U.S, my research has shifted from traditional silk painting techniques to deconstruction and reconstruction of the textile itself. I used the material as a medium to paint and build a new structure for each installation. It's a repeated process of destroying and recreating. Cutting, tearing, beating, sanding. Sewing, weaving, attaching, layering. Silk has becomes the connector that tied both cultures together.
My Silk Piece installations were constructed in the way garment would be made. I sculpted them based on an imagination body. Each fold and drape was secured temporarily with a push pin and constantly changed during the installation process. The forms are not permanent. When I reinstall the piece in a new space this process will be repeated but the result will never turn out the same. The transformation of silk from a delicate to sculptural material was reminiscent of my identity transformation. I see silk as my second skin, borrow it to reconstruct my own self and recapturing memories.
Silk has an important role in Vietnamese culture as well as the traditional art. After I’ve moved to the U.S, my research has shifted from traditional silk painting techniques to deconstruction and reconstruction of the textile itself. I used the material as a medium to paint and build a new structure for each installation. It's a repeated process of destroying and recreating. Cutting, tearing, beating, sanding. Sewing, weaving, attaching, layering. Silk has becomes the connector that tied both cultures together.
My Silk Piece installations were constructed in the way garment would be made. I sculpted them based on an imagination body. Each fold and drape was secured temporarily with a push pin and constantly changed during the installation process. The forms are not permanent. When I reinstall the piece in a new space this process will be repeated but the result will never turn out the same. The transformation of silk from a delicate to sculptural material was reminiscent of my identity transformation. I see silk as my second skin, borrow it to reconstruct my own self and recapturing memories.
THE INDESCRIBABLE FEARS SERIES, 2018
My works often exploring the concept of cultural identity, integration, and displacement. As a Vietnamese immigrant who became a painter in America, I realized the difficulty and challenge of being an outsider. Like many others, I've left my motherland to follow the dream of freedom and liberty, tried to redefine my identity and assimilate to a new culture. Although living a new life beyond war and the vulnerability of refugee generations, I still experience the struggle of being an immigrant and haunted by the misfortunate stories of 'Vietnamese boat people'.
Paintings from this series have a sense of frustration, chaos, and decay. Unlike the elegant and luxurious of traditional silk painting, the fabric was beaten, tore apart and soaked in black ink. Pieces of translucent skin-like silk become the metaphor for people who sacrificed their lives in search for a better life. Many of works in this series also portray the contradiction between the harshness of nature and refugee's fragile life during their escape. The chaotic space was constructed by layering of paint, silk, drawing and endless patterns of splattered ink. I pictured the feeling of being pain and suffering like those sharp linear marks that cut through the paper surface from all different directions. Tearing fabric that hung-off the paper's edges conveys the feeling of being lost and hopeless. The darkness of ink as the bottom of the ocean that has swallowed many ships, bodies, hopes, and their freedom dream.
'The indescribable fear' is an investigation of the human condition that has become a part of my existence. This painting series related to personal history that may not be experienced by all but the tragedy of immigrant and refugee are parts of history and continue to repeat themselves, regardless culture, nation, race, gender or age. As a Vietnamese-American artist, I have no excuse to look away at that unforgettable past which is the deep root of my identity. I hope that the voice of refugee and immigrant being heard, their stories continue to inspire others to keep fighting and achieving their dream.
Paintings from this series have a sense of frustration, chaos, and decay. Unlike the elegant and luxurious of traditional silk painting, the fabric was beaten, tore apart and soaked in black ink. Pieces of translucent skin-like silk become the metaphor for people who sacrificed their lives in search for a better life. Many of works in this series also portray the contradiction between the harshness of nature and refugee's fragile life during their escape. The chaotic space was constructed by layering of paint, silk, drawing and endless patterns of splattered ink. I pictured the feeling of being pain and suffering like those sharp linear marks that cut through the paper surface from all different directions. Tearing fabric that hung-off the paper's edges conveys the feeling of being lost and hopeless. The darkness of ink as the bottom of the ocean that has swallowed many ships, bodies, hopes, and their freedom dream.
'The indescribable fear' is an investigation of the human condition that has become a part of my existence. This painting series related to personal history that may not be experienced by all but the tragedy of immigrant and refugee are parts of history and continue to repeat themselves, regardless culture, nation, race, gender or age. As a Vietnamese-American artist, I have no excuse to look away at that unforgettable past which is the deep root of my identity. I hope that the voice of refugee and immigrant being heard, their stories continue to inspire others to keep fighting and achieving their dream.
INTERBEING SERIES, 2017
Migration has changed my perception of cultural identity and traditional art. I encountered with a new culture as an outsider and began to realize how much my identity was impacted through the adjustment process. The consequences of displacement and the ongoing conflict in everyday life have dominated my way of thinking and creating artwork. It also provided me a distant vision to look at the traditional art and culture through a microscopic level and discover many unknown territories. As much as I loved my cultural heritage, I made works that are not simply to celebrate my culture but to point out the experiences of being different, isolation and lost in an unfamiliar environment. As time goes on, those experiences are constantly changed and intertwined with each other to create a new cultural identity.
My paintings reflected a multicultural perspective, brought together the oriental undertone and abstraction. The challenge during the whole process of creating the artwork is making it visually attractive without losing a sense of its cultural specificity. My paintings also suggest the important of intangible elements, the feeling of emptiness, alien-ness through patterns of absence and in-between spaces. They are struggling to reconnect within the whole composition. Beneath what we see on each of the painting surfaces, layers that are overlaid by another layer, parts that are destroyed and covered. As many of untold stories, they become invisible.
At the heart of my artwork, I believe, is the attempt to harmonize the contradiction between past and present, invisible and visible, East and West. My desire to use the power of visual language transcends national and cultural boundaries.
My paintings reflected a multicultural perspective, brought together the oriental undertone and abstraction. The challenge during the whole process of creating the artwork is making it visually attractive without losing a sense of its cultural specificity. My paintings also suggest the important of intangible elements, the feeling of emptiness, alien-ness through patterns of absence and in-between spaces. They are struggling to reconnect within the whole composition. Beneath what we see on each of the painting surfaces, layers that are overlaid by another layer, parts that are destroyed and covered. As many of untold stories, they become invisible.
At the heart of my artwork, I believe, is the attempt to harmonize the contradiction between past and present, invisible and visible, East and West. My desire to use the power of visual language transcends national and cultural boundaries.