Tang Contemporary Art Bangkok proudly presents Pure Land, a solo show featuring newly commissioned works by acclaimed Vietnamese-American artist Dinh Q. Lê. Through sculptures and photography, Pure Land examines the ripple effects of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War and the social impact of birth defects and physical deformities on Vietnamese society, which are still considered a taboo subject. In Pure Land, Lê visualizes the trauma of the war by conjuring a space of innocence and purity, as a powerful Buddhist allusion to ascending from the murky depths. Featured as an extensive, site-specific installation, Pure Land crystallizes the trauma and horrors of war, rendering the viewer as the observer and the victim all at once.
Dinh Q. Le
Lê’s (b. 1968, Vietnam) work and art practice revolve around the themes of identity, history, and memory, which span various mediums from his well-known woven photographs and tapestries to handmade paper, and video and mixed-media installations that question the reception and consumption of images and how visual culture may inform a national identity. Lê and his family left Vietnam in 1978 and lived in refugee camps in Thailand before relocating to the United States. In California where he lived and went to art school, Lê was sparked by the prevailing perceptions of the Vietnam War and its lingering consequences on the Vietnamese people.
Lê has been invited to exhibit at the 50th Venice Biennial, as well as Documenta (13) at Kassel, Germany. In 2012 he exhibited a major solo project at the Museum of Modern of Art, New York. Lê has participated in numerous international exhibitions, recent solo exhibitions include San Jose Museum of Art, California, USA (2018); Singapore Tyler Print Institute (2018); Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands (2017); Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK (2016); Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan (2016); Site Gallery, Centre for Contemporary Art, Sheffield, UK (2016); Artangel, London, UK (2016); Mori Museum, Tokyo, Japan (2015); P.P.O.W. Gallery, New York, USA (2014); San Francisco Camerawork, USA (2013). Selected group exhibitions include Hong Kong Art Centre (2017); Nam June Paik Art Center, Yongin-si, South Korea (2017); Asia Society and Museum, New York, USA (2017); Trapholt Museum, Kolding, Denmark (2016); Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland (2016); Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (2015); Carré d’Art, Nîmes, France (2014); Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Texas, USA (2012); The Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles, USA (2012); The Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA (2012); National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan (2011).Dinh Q. LE works and lives in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam.
Loredana PAZZINI-PARACCIANI
Loredana Pazzini-Paracciani is an independent curator, writer and lecturer of Southeast Asian contemporary art. Complemented by continuous dialogue with artists and art professionals, her research and curatorial practice revolve around critical sociopolitical issues in Southeast Asia, advocating a counter-hegemonic and non-Western-centric discourse. Loredana currently curates Diaspora: Exit, Exile, Exodus of Southeast Asia (2018) with MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum, and edited the accompanying publication, a collection of essays that examine art and society at the periphery. Her other recent exhibitions include Heads or Tails? Uncertainties and Tensions in Contemporary Thailand (2017) with Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York; The Game/Viet Nam by LE Brothers (2016) with Jim Thompson Art Center, Bangkok; and Architectural Landscapes: SEA in the Forefront (2015) with Queens Museum, New York. She has published in numerous academic journals, such as Asia Research Institute (ARI), National University of Singapore; Frames Cinema Journal, University of St Andrews, UK; and New Asian Imaginations, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore, among others. Loredana received her MA in Asian Art Histories from LASALLE-Goldsmiths College of the Arts, Singapore, and she is currently undertaking her second master’s degree in History of Art and Archeology at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies), London, with a focus on theoretical and cross-cultural studies. Loredana lives in London, UK, and Bangkok, Thailand.
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