ASIA SOCIETY PRESENTS SOLO EXHIBITION OF CONTEMPORARY WORKS BY VIETNAMESE-AMERICAN ARTIST DINH Q. LÊ

September 13, 2005 through January 15, 2006
Media Preview: Monday, September 12 at 10:00 a.m.

Untitled from the series From Vietnam to Hollywood (MGM logo), 2004; 33 1/2 x 67"; courtesy of the artist and 10 Chancery Lane, Hong Kong

This fall, Asia Society presents an exhibition of works by the internationally known contemporary Vietnamese-American artist Dinh Q. Lê. The exhibition, Vietnam: Destination for the New Millennium—The Art of Dinh Q. Lê, brings together works produced over a seven-year period, including a selection of his signature woven photographs, more recent photographic, sculptural and mixed media projects, and a new installation of two, small-scale mirrored satellites.

Reflecting the multiple perspectives of his background, Dinh Q. Lê’s work examines the personal and political conflicts between Vietnamese, American and Vietnamese American points of view. Born in 1968 in a small town in Vietnam on the Cambodian border, Lê and his family migrated to the U.S. in 1978 via Thailand. Raised and educated in the U.S., he returned to Vietnam in the early 1990s, and has been residing there for nearly ten years.

Lê draws on disparate images to challenge American popular perceptions of Vietnam, particularly the Vietnam War (known in Vietnam as the American War). Works in the exhibition reference Hollywood portrayals of the war and depiction of Vietnamese Americans as refugees. Lê’s work also addresses issues in contemporary Vietnamese society, from the painful legacy of the war to the country’s aspirations to become a world-class tourist destination and its efforts to negotiate between capitalist and socialist ideologies.

“Dinh Q. Lê’s compelling works can be read on many levels—as an examination of Vietnamese society against competing, stereotypical representations, and as a meditation on identity, belonging and cultural displacement manifest not only in the immigrant experience but in the experience of living inside and outside American and Vietnamese cultures,” says exhibition curator Melissa Chiu, who is the Asia Society’s Museum Director and Curator of Contemporary Asian and Asian American Art. “Lê’s work provides a significant narrative that addresses the country’s recent past, present and future from a point of view that has been largely absent in western popular imagination. The exhibition is very timely coming 10 years after the normalization of relations between the United States and Vietnam and in view of the recent exponential growth of Southeast Asian immigrants in the United States.”

The exhibition will include some of Lê’s best-known works, woven photographs, from the series From Vietnam to Hollywood (2000). Using traditional weaving techniques he learned as a boy watching his aunt weave grass mats, Lê weaves strips cut from various photographs into large-scale, mosaic-like works. In this particular series, the artist weaves photojournalistic images taken during the war with digitally enhanced stills from Hollywood films about the war, such as Apocalypse Now. A selection of works from the series was shown at the Venice Biennale in 2003.

Mot Coi Di Ve (Spending One’s Life Trying to Find One’s Way Home) , 2000; courtesy of the artist and Shoshana Wayne Gallery

Also included in the exhibition is a large-scale installation exploring personal history and memory that the artist has called a “story quilt,” titled Mot Coi Di Ve (Spending One’s Life Trying to Find One’s Way Home, 2000). Measuring 10 by 20 feet long, the piece consists of some 1,500 black and white family photographs the artist bought at secondhand stores in Vietnam while searching for his own family photographs left behind when his family escaped the country. The backs of the photos are inscribed with recollections by Vietnamese Americans about their homeland and their experiences as immigrants, as well as selections from letters sent home by North Vietnamese soldiers. Inscribed text is also drawn from Vietnam’s classic epic poem from the early 1800s, The Tale of Kiều by Nguyễn Du about a girl’s longing for her homeland.

As much as Lê’s work looks at Vietnam’s past, it also addresses current realities. The mixed media installation Lotus Land (2000) comprises lotus flowers and leaves mounted by conjoined twins in various positions, referencing Hindu and Buddhist iconography. On first glance the piece is endearing, if a bit unsettling. It alludes to the birth defects in Vietnam resulting from the use of the chemical defoliant Agent Orange by the U.S. Army during the war. One of the effects has been a dramatic increase in Vietnam of conjoined twins and other such abnormalities.

Lotus Land , 2000; polymer, fiberglass, and paint; courtesy of the artist and Shoshana Wayne Gallery.

Lê explored this phenomenon in a public project call Damaged Gene (1998), in which he rented a kiosk at an open market in Ho Chi Minh City and sold both conjoined twin figurines and handmade clothing for such twins. Selected objects from the Damaged Gene project—which addressed a taboo subject in Vietnam and drew widespread public attention—will also be on display.

The exhibition at Asia Society takes its title from Lê’s 2005 series of tourist posters that make mocking reference to Vietnam’s marketing campaign used to attract foreign tourists. These large-scale color scenic photographs point to the conflicting methods used to appeal to tourists—on the one hand, the use of the war to promote sites such as the DMZ, and on the other hand, the effort to extol bustling urban centers and the natural beauty of the countryside. For example a photo of a beautiful sandy beach, once the site of the infamous, horrific civilian massacre at My Lai, is inscribed with the slogan: “Come Back to My Lai for its beaches.”

While much of Lê’s work relates to the American-Vietnam War and its aftermath, there is evidence in his most recent work of a shift in focus towards Vietnam’s future. An installation of two, small-scale mirrored satellites ( From Doi Moi to the Sky , 2005) is inspired by Vietnam’s plan to launch its first satellite. The installation is at eye level enabling viewers to examine the satellite and through the mirrored surface, to also examine themselves. This references a satellite’s function—to both collect and transmit information. At the same time, the work addresses Vietnam’s own desire not only to modernize but also to assert itself globally through the development of such advanced communications technology.

Related programs

The Asia Society has organized a number of related programs to coincide with the exhibition. These include a Meet the Authors program with journalist and NPR commentator Andrew Lam - Perfume Dreams and Quang X. Pham - A Sense of Duty: My Father, My American Journey on Thursday, October 27, at 7:00 p.m. The program is cosponsored by and held at Asian American Writers’ Workshop.  There will be an artists’ roundtable on Tuesday, November 8, at 6:30 p.m. featuring Dinh Q. Lê with scholars and other artists in The Drawing Center’s exhibition Persistent Vestiges: Drawing From the American-Vietnam War, on view November 5, 2005 to February 11, 2006. The program is co-presented by and held at The Drawing Center. For information on these and other programs, go to www.AsiaSociety.org or call (212) 517-ASIA.

Vietnam: Destination for the New Millennium—The Art of Dinh Q. Lê and related programming is made possible with support from Nimoy Foundation and W.L.S. Spencer Foundation. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated 48-page catalogue.

Also on view at Asia Society

Also on view this fall will be a special lobby display, Beyond Tradition: Carol Cassidy Woven Silks of Laos, September 13 through October 30. A scholar and finely skilled weaver, Cassidy has worked with weavers in Laos to renew recognition of their artistry through her company Lao Textiles. A master weaver will demonstrate traditional weaving techniques on a loom set up in the lobby from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. during the week of September 14­–18. Also at this time, Cassidy will be on-site and a special selection of magnificent silk weavings by Lao Textiles will be on sale at AsiaStore at Asia Society and Museum.

Images of the Divine exhibition extended through January 8, 2006

On view in the Museum through January 8, 2006 is an exhibition of stunning Hindu and Buddhist sculptures from South and Southeast Asia, drawn from the Asia Society’s renowned permanent collection. Images of the Divine: South and Southeast Asian Sculpture from the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection comprises more than fifty works highlighting the ties within these two regions, which date back as far as the 1st to 3rd centuries B.C.E. Highlighted works include an exquisitely carved 2nd- to 3rd-century head of the Buddha from Gandhara, 7th-century imagery of Vishnu from Bihar, a spectacular 8th-century Bodhisattva Maitreya from Thailand and a powerful 12th–13th century image of Vajrasattva from East Java.

The exhibition is curated by Adriana Proser, John H. Foster Curator of Traditional Asian Art, Asia Society.

Rockefeller Collection in Focus: Jizo Bosatsu

The first in an ongoing series dedicated to a single selected piece from the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3 rd Collection of the museum, this exhibition concentrates on an outstanding object—the Jizo Bosatsu from the Kamakura period—and its original contexts. Curated by Melanie B.D. Klein, the exhibition seeks to enlighten the background of this Japanese devotional figure: the temple complex in Nara from which it came, its manufacture, and its role in Buddhist worship. On view September 13, 2005 through January 15, 2006.

Founded in 1956 by John D. Rockefeller 3rd, the Asia Society is an international, nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening relationships and deepening understanding among the peoples of Asia and the United States. The Asia Society presents a wide range of public programs, including major arts exhibitions, performances, lectures, international conferences, and K-12 educational initiatives about Asia. Headquartered in New York City, the organization has regional centers in the U.S. in Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Regional Centers in Asia include Hong Kong, Manila, Melbourne, and Shanghai. On the web at www.AsiaSociety.org.

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