Field of Shredded Paper

Over the span of three weeks, 2000+ found photographs of the Vietnam War from the Internet were printed and shredded immediately with a paper shredder. The physical photographs exist only for a fleeting moment, still damp with ink, within a repeated process of view–print–shred. What is left of this performative action is strewn throughout the exhibition floor. The remains of a series of violent historical events begin to look strikingly similar to one another, each shredded piece acting as part of a whole, blurring past and present into a symbolic, unsolvable puzzle of disremembering.

 

Family

Drifting through a different space is Family (2019), a work comprising 42 jellyfish meticulously created in silk and polyester. Gently lit with color-changing lights, the jellyfish float down from the 5.5 meter-high ceiling at the gallery entrance, adapting to the gallery’s architecture as the ceiling height decreases. While visually quite stunning, it is important to note that some jellyfish species are poisonous with tentacles that can kill on contact. Bearing in mind that jellyfish come together in blooms more by natural impulses rather than familial allegiance, the artwork’s title takes on an ironic tone and prods us to consider how families are shaped by society. (Galerie Quynh)

Adrift in Darkness #3

Adrift in Darkness, an installation composed of amorphous three- dimensional sculptures, saw the artist explore rattan weaving for the very first time, featuring the recent refugee exodus from Africa and the Middle East into Southern Europe.

Dinh Q. Lê: “It takes reference from the images of people packed so tightly on a rickety old boat, floating in the middle of a dark ocean. As one who did the same to escape the harsh Vietnamese communist regime at the time, issues of this mass exodus and the fear and rejection of Europeans have been on my mind lately. I like to think that we are all sitting on a rock and floating in this dark universe. The faces are drawn from images of large group protests from all over the world. As the world’s population grows larger, conflicts arise as more people cross territories. Anger and hatred abound, but we all need to step back and take a look at where we are.”