Dinh Q. Lê

Khmer Reamker #12 , 2021

Color print, Linen Archival tape

250x220cm

Dinh Q. Lê was born in Vietnam and immigrated to the US as a refugee at the end of the Vietnam war. He created a process of weaving photographs collaging...

Dinh Q. Lê was born in Vietnam and immigrated to the US as a refugee at the end of the Vietnam war. He created a process of weaving photographs collaging imagery and ideas which have become his most well-known media, however, he works in multiple disciplines. Dinh Q. Lê is not your typical photographer. For him, images represent a means of questioning, splicing and transforming. In this newest series of works that are now showing at the Musée Quai Branly until Nov. 2022, Lê focusses on the failings of collective perceptions about Cambodia. The works combine the imagery of the victims of the Khmer Rouge regime (1975-1979) with the images found in the Palace Museum of the epic good vs. evil tale, Reamker (the Ramayana) which offers a glimpse into the richness of Cambodian culture. Lê layers into his photo-woven collages the image of one of the publicised photographs of the victims from the Tuol Sleng prison. However, he invites the viewer to look beyond the association of this portrait that attributes the only value of this person's life being that in their last moments. The rich thousand-year Cambodian history is indeed a part of the individuals in the Tuol Sleng prison portraits . Lê assimilates his own refugee experience of being defined by the Vietnam war and the absence of knowledge and understanding of Vietnam's deep history.

Dinh Q. Lê is the most widely recognised Vietnamese artist with exhibitions and collections at MoMA, New York, The Mori Museum and The Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan, The San Jose Museum of Art,The Singapore Art Museum, SF MoMA and currently at The Musee Quai Branly, Paris, among others. He has been awarded the Ballagio Creative Arts Fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Visual Art Laureate, Prince Claus Fund, The Netherlands. He has participated in the 50th Venice Biennale and dOCUMENTA(13), among others.

Provenance

Dinh Q. Lê was born in Vietnam and immigrated to the US as a refugee at the end of the Vietnam war. He created a process of weaving photographs collaging imagery and ideas which have become his most well-known media, however, he works in multiple disciplines. Dinh Q. Lê is not your typical photographer. For him, images represent a means of questioning, splicing and transforming. In this newest series of works, that are now showing at the Musée Quai Branly until Nov. 2022, Lê focusses on the failings of collective perceptions about Cambodia. The works combine the imagery of the victims of the Khmer Rouge regime (1975-1979) with a Tuol Sleng (S21) prison photo combined with the images found in the Palace Museum of the epic, good vs. evil, tale The Reamker (the Ramayana) which offers a glimpse into the richness of Cambodian culture. Lê layers into his photo-woven collages the image of one of the mug shots of the victims from the Tuol Sleng prison. However, he invites the viewer to look beyond the association of this portrait that attributes the only value of this person's life being that in their last moments. The rich thousand-year Cambodian history is indeed a part of the individuals in the Tuol Sleng prison portraits . Lê assimilates his own refugee experience of being defined by the Vietnam war and the absence of knowledge and understanding of Vietnam's deep history. Intertwining the Cambodian narrative is personal to Lê, whose family is from the Vietnam/Cambodia border town of HaTien. The Khmer Rouge invasion and massacre of Ha Tien in 1978, eventually pushed his family to leave Vietnam and seek refuge aboard, leaving an indelible mark on him. Which led to his continual interest in Cambodia's Khmer Rouge history.

Dinh Q. Lê is the most widely recognised Vietnamese artist with exhibitions and collections at MoMA, New York, The Mori Museum and The Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan, The San Jose Museum of Art,The Singapore Art Museum, San Francisco MoMA and currently at The Musee Quai Branly, Paris, among others. He has been awarded the Ballagio Creative Arts Fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Visual Art Laureate, Prince Claus Fund, The Netherlands. He has participated in the 50th Venice Biennale and dOCUMENTA(13), among others.

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