Engaging The Past

Perhaps due to the misconception that photography is always objective, contemporary artists have found
the medium particularly useful in reinterpreting and documenting obscured voices. Indian photographer
Pushpamala N's Native Women of South India- Manners and Customs (2000-2004) is an example that
quickly comes to mind. Collaborating with British photographer Clare Arni, Pushpamala reenacts the
19th-century zenanas-all women studios run by British female photographers in cities such as Hyderabad
and Kolkata where Indian women would be pictured with painted sets-in a series of photographic
performances exploring the history of photography as an ethnographic tool. While the British had used
photography to fix native women as types, according to Pushpamala, the Indians have used the medium
to create a national identity.
Another example is Indonesian photographer Ng Swan Ti's Catholicism in Indonesia (2000-2005).
While it was pursued as a personal project to learn about her faith, Ng's work serves as a window into
the minority religion within the context of the world's most populous Muslim country. One can only hope
that more Indonesians will see her work and hopefully participate in the ensuing dialogue, thereby laying
the foundations for long-term religious harmony.
Given the catastrophic fallout of the Vietnam War, it is tempting to assume that Vietnamese
should have already dealt with the tragedy as a subject over the vears,_However, this is not
the case. The reasons are not too profound. After the war, most photographers were more preoccupied in
rebuilding their lives rather than getting involved in art. At the same time, many of them are members
of the Vietnamese Association of Photographic Artists (VAPA), which is linked to the government. Certain
suJ1_ects are natural!Jlfrowned upon.
As early as 1989, while he was still studying for his BFA at the University of California at Santa
Barbara, Vietnamese artist Dinh Q. Le was already confronting his memories of the war through his work.
Di nh Q . Le, Untitled (from Vietnam to Hollywood series), 2003- 2005, photo-weaving. All photographs: Courtesy of the Artist.
60 ASIAN ART NEWS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006
Dinh Q. U!, Untitled (from Vietnam to Hollywood series), 2003-2005, photo-weaving.
Amongst the first wave of Vietnamese migrants who studied art in the West and have since returned to the
country, Le is best known for his "photo-weavings," a selection of which were featured at the 50th Venice
Bienn!le. The method that he uses is derived from his aunt's mat-weaving technique. By physically weaving
together strips cut f : om found images, !:_e's act is a symbolic one in his wr:.. rk; to include rather than to
exclude a multitude o[perspective!!_ especially those that have been marginalized by the mainstream. His
interest does not end with the Vietnam War. Born in 1968, at Ha-Tien, a South Vietnamese village not far
from the Cambodian borg er, Le and his family survived the Vietnam War but fled to Los Angeles in 1979
because of the invasion of the Khmer Rouge. In Cambodia: Splendor and Darkness (1996-1998), images
of Angkor and the victims of Tuol Sleng-the Khmer Rouge's infamous prison-are- woven together in an
attempt to cast a redeeming light on a country that is still plagued by poverty.
Apart from photo-weavings, Le, who also did his Master's in photography and related media at New
York's School of Visual Arts (1990-1992), makes installations and video works, which can be seen as.Jan
extension of his interest m weavmg perspectives. Mot Coi DiVe (1998), which translates as "spending one's
life trying to find one's way home," is an excellent example. Made into a quilt from 1,500 old photos of
- Vietnam, Le inscribed on the back of them lines from Vietnam's 19th-century epic poem The Tale of Kieu,
letters !!!1.Lhomgjrom sol:li!!!:s during the war, and interviews with Vietnamese-Americans dl).;;;;j their
.......a .....--........ ....
memori!!_ of Vietnam, and their lives as migrants based onjames Freeman's Hearts of Sorrow: Vietnamese-
American Lives. According to Rebecca Mcdreurtn an essay introducing Le's wo;:k, the h e r ~ ~ Tale
of Kieu came 'from a good family, who had to turn to prostitution but was eventually redeemed. Due
to tragic events, she was forced to leave her home and country. . . and subjected to terrible ordeals and
suffering. Eventually, she was able to return to her homeland and be reunited with her family ... Kieu
stands for Vietnam itself, a land well endowed with natural and human resources, but often doomed to
see such riches go to waste or be destroyed. Particularly, during and after the Vietnam War, many people
identified with Kieu."
Singapore-based Asian Art News correspondent Zhuang Wubin spoke with Dinh Q. Le about the
motivations behind his various projects and how his personal history has shaped his art. Dinh Q. Le now
divides his time between Ho Chi Minh City and Los Angeles.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006 ASIAN ART NEWS 61
Dinh Q. Ui, Untitled (from Portraying a White God series), 1989-1993, photo-weaving.
Zhuang Wubin:Magnum photographer
PhilipJones Gri.ffiths has just published
Vietnam at Peace, a mammoth book
about the country after the Vietnam
War. Although he made his name
covering the War, the book indicates a
commitment to documenting Vietnam's
recovery over the past 20 years. In
a way, this book is conceived in the
same spirit as most of your conceptual
work on Vietnam. What do you feel
about his photographs
of Vietnam?
Q. U!: I cannot claim
to be an expert on Philip
]ones Griffiths' work. But I
know that his images from
the War were very well
published around ilie world.
Images from this book have
been comparatively less
widely seen. The probability
of iliese images making onto
the front page of the New
York Times must be lower
than that of his images of
the War. The world is no
longer interested. It seems
the readers and
the press only wanted the
nmst violent and shocking
of the war. But we
h ad a life back then, even
dUrina th Vietnam War.
T s 1all the starting
point for Mat Coi Di Ve.
How has Mot Coi Di Ve
helped you in finding
your way home to
Vietnam?
We couldn't take much with
us when we fled Vietnam.
Apart from the Khme r
Rouge's invasion, we left
because Vietnam was quite
repressive then. When I
returned, I went in searcii'Qf
my family photos in second-
photos but I started collecting those d1at
I _saw. They were SJm!lar, but not exW ly
mine. Because I didn't want to limit d1e
project w1th my personal perspective I
started buying the images by the I
bought about four to five kil ograms_of
photos for the project, from which j(OU
will see that there were happy days eY1
during the war.
Whe n I returned to Vietnam for
the first time in 1993, I was already fairly
-._
assimilated into American life . I went to
the faJ.11ilY grave and felt d1e first sense of
connect;i. on with the country. There were
five generations of my famil buried
In d1e States, I had
always been drifting. I made up my mind
by 1996 to move back.
Apart from the fixation on gory images,
what do you think is problematic with
our perspective on the Vietnam War?
The West has largely
informed our view of the
War. We hardly encounter
vjews frorn Asians, let alone
the Vietnamese. What do
we know about the 'civilian
point of view? In my work,
I'm guided by the desire to
present my version of the
war to the world.
hand stor.es. I cl jdp't Q. Le, Untitled (from Portraying a White God series), 1989-1993, photo-weaving.
--
Living in America as
a minority, race is always
a major issue. It feels as
though we always have
to define our relationship
w1ili. the whites. In school, I
sti1diea a1t, which is unusual.
first wave
anc migrants were nQ!J11ally
concerned with maki ng
money, Chi ldren we1:s:_sent
to engineering scJ:..gols,
pa rtly due to their li.!],ited
command of English. As
lives becam> stable,
we had more freedom to
other disciplines
in school, not only in art,
but also in history and
literature. This will lead to a
proliferation of perspectives
in Vietnam, which can only
be good. Some of these
young people are returning
to their parents' homeland.
In ilie process, iliey will have
to reaffirm their concept of
Vietnam, which tends to be
larger-than-life, since it has
bee n feel by Hollywood.
62 ASIAN ART NEWS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006
These are exciting times in Vietnam.
Photo-weaving was first used in
Portraying a White God (1989-1993).
What were you trying to address with
that work?
I was 11 whe n I arrived in America. I
couldn't speak English and didn't have any
friends. When I was doing my seventh or
eighth grade, I would spend my time in
the libraty looking at art books. For one
reason or another, all the books were about
Renaissance Art. At UC S n Barbara, I
was an Asian s t Western art
history witho ut knowing anything about
my own histoty . Made during my senior
year, Portray ing a White God was a n
attempt to weave my self-portraits into the
Renaissance paintings, which represent an
identity and culture that is not mine. I was
trying to a tapestiy where L was
also included.
--
How does the technique of photo-
weaving work? Are the pauerns used
in traditional mat weaving symbolic
in Vietnam?
The panerns used in mat-weaving are preny
standard. They are not symbolic because
the mats often meant for eve
For example, to
husks .
fr omma t -weaving, my
photo-weaving technique
is quite different. Weaving
two or more photographs
together, certain parts are
left unwoven so that tTie
images will come through
more vividly. If I want to
merging
int o e-ac h o the r , m at
particular area will have

quite s imple. I have always
been quite good in math. In
fact, I was supposed to do
computer science instead
of art. Weaving is perhaps
one of the
structures in existence. In a
way';computer and
weaving are quite similar.
At around the same
time as Portraying
a White God, you did
a series of political
posters quantifying the
suffering of Americ a
and Vietnam during the
War. In hindsight, are
you surprised that you
could make something so
Dinh Q. Ui, The Quality of Mercy (detai l), 1995, installation.
to the photo-weavings, which tend to
be subtler?
With the poste rs, I had to convey the
message very quickly. But to make them, I
also needed to see the War from America's
perspective. It required an understanding
of the issue from both sides of the equation.
At that time, I was taking a course titled "A
the Vietnam WaP"'

Inevitably, it perpetuated the American
point of view. I became frustrated. Their
suffe ring during the War is incomparable
to that of the Vietnamese people . Stop
whining, I tho ugh t.---r-rooke d up the
number of casualties and the difference
between the Vietnamese and the Americans
is vast: something in the scal e of two
million as compared to 60,000.
information, I made a series of photocopied
posters and posted them all
over campus. Interestingly,
I have not kept a set of
these posters but some of
my teachers fo und the m
meaningful enough to take
the m off the walls and kept
the m.
Your first trip to
Cambodia in 1994 led to
a series of projects about
the country, including the
installations The Quality
of Mercy (1995) and
Cambodia: Splendor and
Darkness. Why did the
trip leave such an impact
on you?
reactionary, as compared Dinh Q. Ui, The Quality of Mercy, 1995, installation view.
Growing up in Ha-Tie n ,
Cambodia was never too
far away. Be fo re 1975,
there was already a lot of
trade betwcrn Vietn;;:;:;a'nd
Cambodia. After 1975, a lot
mo re Cambodians came to
Ha:'f'ien . The borde r
g uite poro us . There was
fi)L' p aSSJ2Ql;tS tO
cross the border. In fact,
my cousins were bo rn in
Ca mbodia . The y s po ke
Cambodian and yery bad
Vie t namese. In 1976 or
NOVEMBER/ DECEMBER 2006 ASIAN ART NEWS 6 3
1977, they escaped to Vietnam with my
aunt and told us all the horror stories of
the Khmer Rouge. I went to Cambodia in
1994 to learn more about the countly that
affected my life.
My first stop then was U!ol Sleng,
where I saw manr_ Many of
them were on honeymoon, visiting the
museum before going to Angkor. They
had come with a morbid fascination and
that bothered me. "When the Khmer Rouge
the genocide, the world
but didn't do al}.Ythmg about it. As a
result, more than two million people were
killed. Housed in a space that resembled
a torture chamber, Tbe Qualitj}'Q[Mercy
images of the victims'
eyes showed that they didn't know
by they were brought to Tuol Sleng. They
were the scapegoats of the Khmer Rouge's
failed poli cies.
" Cambodia: Splendor and Darkness
was driven by the conflicting thought
that a culture capable of such beautiful
monuments as the Angkor Wat could also
murder two million of her own people. I
think we have the tendency of building
monuments-which celebrate the reigns
of kings-rather than memorials, which
commemorate victims.
How was your installation The Headless
Buddha (1997), which is also about
Angkor, a metaphor of your decision
to move back to Vietnam?
There are a lot of headless statues at
Angkor. Initially, I thought it was the
handiwork of the Khmer Rouge. Later, I
realized it was the looters who cut the
heads and sold them in Thailand. When
the heads of the Buddha reached America
or Europe, they became exotic art objects,
whi le Cambodians, rather surprisingly,
continued praying to these headless
Buddhas. We usually assume that an object
loses its significance when its head is
removed, but this is not the case at Angkor.
Nonetheless, it was interesting for me to see
how different cultures deal with the same
object when split into two.
When I came back to Vietnam, I
was searching for my former self. Similarly,
in Tbe Headless Buddha, the head is also
looking for its former self in the form of
its headless body. Nowadays, when I see
my cousin who didn't escape to America ,
I often wonder if I would have been like
him if I had stayed in Vietnam. We are
around the same age. He is now working
as an accountant for two companies. Tbe
Headless Buddha is about the sense of
displacement.
It must have been an interesting
experience in housing an installation
project like Damaged Gene (1998) in a
market of Ho Chi Minh City. Apart from
the Siamese-twin figurines, you made
clothes for these children and T-shirts
quantifying thefaUout of Agent Orange
in Vietnam and the companies-like
Dow Chemical and Monsanto-that
produced it. How did people react to
the work? Did the installation alarm
the authorities?
At that time, many people with deformities
were begging on the streets. In recent
years, the number has decreased since the
government started taking care of them.
In 1998, nobody would talk about it.
The American government didn't want to
remind the world that they had used Agent
Orange during the War. The Vietnamese
government didn't want to face the issue
because by then Vietnam was already the
third largest exporter of rice in the world
and perhaps the third or fourth largest
exporter of coffee. Bringing up the issue
would affect the country's agri cultural
Dinh Q. Le, Untitled (from Cambodia: Splendor and Darkness series) , DinhQ. Le, Untitled (fromCambodia:Sp/endorandOarknessseries), 1996-1998,
1996-1998, photo-weaving. photo-weaving.
64 ASIAN ART NEWS NOVEMBER/ DECEMBER 2006
exports. Moreover, the urban myth was
that by talking about it, you would have
deformities.
During the War, Agent Orange
was used to defoliate Vietnam. A pinhead
of it is enough to change your genetic
makeup. After the War, there has been a
1,000-percent increase in the number of
Siamese twins born in Vietnam. Today,
Agent Orange is sti ll found in the soil. You
can only destroy it by burning the soil. How
do you do that?
I did the project in the market
because there was no way it would be
approved as an exhibiti on. Even today, you
need approvals to do exhibitions, although
the subject of Agent Orange is no longer
taboo. I also didn't want the show to be
in a gallery where nobody would turn up.
In any case, I had to find a way to realize
the project. At that time, the government
was encouraging people to run their
own businesses. I found a shop that sold
clothes in the market and asked the lady
if she could take a break for a month. As
the market belonged to the government,
people in charge came and asked what
I was doing. I told them I just wanted to
sell things. Employees from a government
agency that dealt with the issue of Agent
Orange also brought me to their office.
While they screamed at me, they were
inevitably giving me more information
about the issue. Thankfully, they didn't
shut the shop down.
About half the people who passed
by the shop tried to ignore it. The rest
were quite curious-half of them actually
stopped and engaged me in an informal
dialogue about the issue. As the word
spread, researchers and medical students
also came to the shop. Everything in the
shop was for sale at less than a US$1 each.
Most of the T-shirts were given away for
Dinh Q. Le, The Headless Buddha,1997, installation, installation view.
free. The Vietnamese didn't want the were suffering from hysterical blindness.
figurines and children's clothes. Even when Medically, there was nothing wrong with
I gave them to my friends for free, their them. Their blindness was due to post-
families would not keep these things in traumatic stress disorder. Their minds
their homes. I sold about 100 items to many would shut down their vision because
foreign tourists, particularly the Japanese. they had seen so much horror during Pol
Perhaps they understood my work better Pot's reign and that they were uncared for
due to their experiences with Hiroshima when they moved to America. The project
and the Minamata mercury-poisoning was completely in white because this is
disaster. the mourning calor of Asia. Viewers were
In The Texture ofMemory(1999-2000),
you returned to the subject of Pol
Pot's reign in Cambodia. This series is
obviously very different from earlier
projects. How did you come up with
the idea?
Portraits of the victims at Tuol Sleng were
embroidered onto white cotton sheets with
thick white cotton, creating this Braille-like
work. Braille is the only way that the blind
can experience visual images. In California,
I came across Cambodian women who
encouraged to touch the work so that oil
from their fingers would stain the images
and that portraits of the victims would
become more pronounced on Ibe Texture
of Memory. If we touch or face up to our
memory, it will become clearer.
In From Vietnam to Hollywood (2003-
2005), the technique of photo-weaving
is used to deal with your memory of
the Vietnam War. The series takes on a
surreal quality where different images
within a piece of work merge and
dissolve into one another, not unlike
the compositions of Dali's paintings. Is
Dali's work a reference point to From
Vietnam to Hollywood?
Not real ly, but my memo1y of the Vietnam
War has indeed become surrealistic.
The demarcation line between fact and
fiCtion has disappeared. Once I visited
my mum in California. At that time, there
was a very big bush fire near her place. I
recalled looking out at the sky and seeing
helicopters dropping retardants to stop tlie
re. It was like a scene from the Vietnam
ut t a w ac ua y an unag t
came from Hollywood. I never did see
heTicopters when I was still in Vietnam
dunng the War. It is important for me to
recognize that my memory of the war has
b ~ o m e so Slippery.
Dinh Q. Ui , Mot Coi DiVe (detail), 1998, photographic installation.
In From Vietnam to Hollywood,
images from Holl ywood movies of the
Vietnam War, including Born on the
Fourth qf July and Ibe Quiet American,
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006 ASIAN ART NEWS 65
are interwoven with pictures of
our daily lives during the War and
photos taken by Western
photographers. These three sets
of memone-s=are converging in my
mind. I have also tr ied to
press images taken by Vietnam e
p ot a ers ut t e selection
is quite limite . An American
pubfisher has Kindly provided
some of these images. I have not
been able to find these images in
Vietnam.
For the 5th Asia-Pacific
Triennial of Contemporary Art
in Queensland, you have been
commissioned to produce a
video titled The Farmers and the
Helicopters (2006). How does
your video work extend your
interest in weaving narratives
of the victims affected by the
Vietnam War or the Khmer
Rouge?
Presented as a three-channel
projection, there is a sequence in
Tbe Farmers and the Helicopters
that starts off with dragonflies in
the sky. This is accompanied by
a Vietnamese folk song sung by
people who had been attacked or
circled by helicopters. Interestingly,
they talk about the helicopter as a
vicious animal that would come at
them during the Vietnam War.
You have show,n mainly in
the West. Is it important for
the Vietnamese to see your
work? How is the state of
contemporary art in Vietnam?
a lady in the background. The Dinh Q. Le, Untitled (from The Texture of Memory series), 1999-2000,
It's important for the Vietnamese to
see my work. However, there is no
space or supporting infrastructure
to show contemporary art. I'm
one of the few Vietnamese artists
who deal with the War away
from the official version of things.
In Vietnam, art has traditionally
been associated with painting.
The art associations, including the
VAPA, exist under the government.
This can be problematic, as the
Photographers are sometimes
rs_uired to tread the official line.
A while ago, it was ' beautiful
Now they are supposed
to h ighlight our economic growth.
photographers tend to go for
beautiful images in the fashion of
National Geographic. Thankfully,
there is now a small group of
photographers who have studied
scene cuts quickly to footage embroidery, cotton sheet and threads.
of helicopters in combat sourced from farming equipment. A farmer who comes
Hollywood films and documentary. You to his shop has agreed to help him. He
probably cannot tell them apart, which is hopes to use the helicopters to spray his
not surprising. To lend credibility to their crops. They also hope that the helicopters
films, Hollywood directors often mimic the can be used in emergencies to evacuate
documentaries. people. More important, they want to show
In Vietnam, the helicopter has the world that the Vietnamese can achieve
become somewhat iconic because the anything. Personally, I'm intrigued by
Vietnam War was the first time helicopters the transition of the helicopter as a death
were extensively used as a killing machine. machine to a machine of peace. They have
This video is about two guys who are trying already made two helicopters. The first one,
to build low-cost helicopters in Vietnam. which took six years to build, resembles an
One of them has seen helicopters when American helicopter. They have traveled
he was growing up during the War and around Vietnam looking at the ruins of
has since become infatuated with them. American helicopters for inspiration. In
Nowadays, he runs a small shop repairing the video, I have also interviewed four
abroad and have joined the VAPA. They
are starting to produce very meaningful
documentary work.
Personally, I'm still waiting for the
day when Vietnam will look deep down
iflsi"de and see how the War the
country. After the War, W"e'"'"didn't h;l e the
luxurv to ponder on such issues. Everything
was destroyed and we had to quickly
move on. Today, our economy is back on
track. We are also politically more .Qpen.
Hopefully, our distance from
allow us to look at it with less pain. In
terms of the art scene in Vietnam, from
the small group of Vietnamese who are
informed about contemporary art and the
Dinh Q. Le, Damaged Gene (detail),1998, mixed-media installation. Dinh Q. Le, Damaged Gene {detail),1998, mixed-media installation.
66 ASIAN ART NEWS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006
Dinh Q. Le, Untitled (from Vietnam to Hollywood series), 2003-2005, photo-weaving.
articles that I read from local papers, I'm In the past, rice has been a popular motif
sure things will improve. for Asian-American artists. But it has now
There are many contemporary artists
who have addressed the issue of
identity in their works. In a way,
your various projects are about your
identity as a Vietnamese transplanted
to America. Do you think there are
artists who have exploited the issue to
fulfill a Western fantasy of Asia?
Vietnam-American War documentary footage
become a cliche. In America, young artists
are finding new ways of articulating their
identities. Identity is no longer static; you
can be whatever you want to be.
I think it is inevitable that artists
tend to deal with the issue of identity
because it's something close to their hearts.
I'm sure some must have abused it to get
recognized faster. However, as an artist, I
Scene from Apocalypse Now
Dinh Q. Le, The Farmers and the Helicopters, 2006, video stills.
NOVEMBER/ DECEMBER 2006
cannot possibly spend two or three years
working on something that I'm not crazy
about. You can tell me all about genetic
manipulation but I will not engage the topic
unless I have an emotional connection to
it. I can't work on something that I don't
feel meaningful. L\
Zhuang Wubin is a photographer and arts
writer based in Singapore.
Mr. Tran Quoc Hai
ASIAN ART NEWS 67