Khanh Le - Making Memories
Design, Digital Art, Drawing, Mixed Media, Painting, Photography, Print, Sculpture
Using family snapshots as an inspiration to explore the notion of dislocation. As a refugee, who flee my own culture and must adapt to another, I often deal with alienation and as an outsider to both sides- Vietnamese and American.
I pursue an artistic interest in the hyphenated, the in-between. In an earlier body of work I interviewed numerous Vietnamese-Americans in Syracuse area with an aim to tell their stories. Invariably they brought out photo albums to help explain their lives. Recognizing the importance of family snapshot in defining identity lead to this current work.
Photographs are evidence, but also interpretation makes them important. When people ask me about my identity it is almost like it is fixed or permanent. But it is always in flux with my environment. By digitally manipulating, enlarging and embellishing images from my own family album, I try to reflect this process of perceptions changing over time.