Dinh Q Lê weaves photos like Vietnamese grass mats, a technique that he learned as a boy from his aunt. In FROM VIETNAM TO HOLLYWOOD (2003-2005) he mixes stills from Hollywood films with anonymous black and white photos made in Vietnam. The film images come from Apocalypse Now, Indochine (with Catherine Deneuve) and Hamburger Hill. The photographs were made during the war in Vietnam. Dinh Q Lê explains his work by saying, 'Hollywood and the US are constantly trying to rewrite our memories of the Vietnam War. I struggle to keep alive the memories of the Vietnamese themselves from this time.'
Dinh Q Lê (b. 1968) was born in a small Vietnamese village on the Cambodian border. After the invasion by the Khmer Rouge, his family fled in 1979 to New York. Presently Dinh Q Lê lives in Ho Chi Minh City, where he is involved in various art initiatives. |