P.P.O.W is pleased to announce an exhibition of new photographs by Dinh Q. Lê. We will also be showing a video which documents a piece performed in Vietnam entitled Damaged Gene. Mr. Lê’s work has been seen since 1992 in a variety of public projects and museum and gallery exhibitions. In 1998, an exhibition entitled The Headless Buddha accompanied by a color catalogue traveled across the United States.

Dinh Q. Lê was born in Ha-Tien in Vietnam in 1968 and came to the United States in 1979. When the artist was living in Vietnam the Khmer Rouge invaded his town and killed many people.  This tragic event and the impact of the Vietnam War are the driving forces behind Lê’s woven photographs.  As a child, Dinh Q. Lê watched his Aunt weave grass mats. This education led the artist to eventually weave images together creating photographic objects that are powerful reminders of the histories of Vietnam and Cambodia. In this show there will be ten woven photographs that weave together images of people that were murdered by the Khmer Rouge and the ancient temples of Angkor Wat. The work abounds in contrasts and contradictions, the beauty and horror of the history, the craftsmanship of weaving and the technical image of the photograph. 

We will also be showing a video of Damaged Gene an exhibition/performance by Dinh Q. Lê in Ho Chi Minh City in August 1998. During the Vietnam War, five million acres of land in Southern Vietnam were soaked with twenty million gallons of Agent Orange. It is estimated that half a million children may have been born with dioxin-related deformities since 1965.  Since 1994 there have been five pairs of Siamese twins born in Vietnam. This is ten times greater than the figures anticipated based on Vietnam’s population.

In response to these statistics, Dinh Q. Lê opened a kiosk in the market. In this shop Lê sold handmade dresses, shirts and sweaters for Siamese twins.  The clothing bore the names of the various corporations that produced the chemicals for warfare including Monsanto and Dow Chemical. There were also Siamese plastic dolls and figurines, T-shirts and toys. The aim of the project was to expose both the Vietnamese shoppers and the international tourists to the continuous devastating effects of Agent Orange. Lê succeeded in raising the awareness of the public, but he also attracted the attention of government officials because he did not give them the right to pre-approve the project, as is the rule for all exhibitions in Vietnam.