J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Binh Danh
Episode #55, Summary
The Enigma of Belonging is a poetic offering exploring the incessant negotiation of belonging by Vietnamese American photographer and educator Binh Danh.
Episode Notes
Three deeply researched long-term projects; Immortality: Remnants of the Vietnam and American War, One Week’s Dead, and National Parks are compiled in a sumptuous two-volume slipcase. Hauntingly beautiful chlorophyll prints and daguerreotypes, printed with clarity and depth on dense black paper, animate a living history of war, refugee status, immigration and assimilation. Augmented by essays, poetry and historical material in an all-white soft-covered book, Danh has masterfully married intention with process as a means of transmigration.
In this conversation, Binh discusses, among other things:
The power of a work of art
Public consciousness
Cultural identity
Innovating chlorophyll prints
Receiving history
Art being activated by the viewer
Decoding the code of daguerreotypes
Negotiation of materials
Complicated stewardship of the land
Bringing light to dark places
A mobile darkroom called Louis
Referenced in the episode
San Jose State University School of Art & Design Photography
Stanford Book Talk on The Enigma of Belonging
The Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network (DVAN)
Lisa Sette Gallery (Scottsdale, AZ)
Haines Gallery San Francisco, CA)