Exhibition review:
Dinh Q Lê: on textility, weaving and unravelling
Abstract: From a life marked by disruption and displacement, Vietnamese-
American artist Dinh Q Lê has crafted a distinctive aesthetic revolving around
visual and metaphorical juxtapositions, using photography as his main material
and conceptual resource. Born in Vietnam in 1968, he moved to the United States
in the 1980s, only settling back in Vietnam in the mid-1990s. This exhibition
review examines the textile quality and “textility” of his work, in Tim Ingold’s
words, especially in the processes engaged in his monumental photo weavings.
Inspired by mat weaving, Lê develops a new visual and semiological language by
interlacing two different photographic prints cut into strips. The selection of
twenty artworks exemplifies Lê’s relentless fascination for Cambodia and
Vietnam’s histories of conflict, complexities and memorialization.