Page 187 - The 60.Venice Biennial & MoMA issue of WOA Contemporary Art magazine

An-My Lê. New Orleans, from the series Delta, 2011. © 2022 An-My Lê, courtesy of
the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery

An-My Lê. Erotic Scene, (from the Lupanar of Pompeii), The National Archeological Museum
of Naples, from the series Gabinetto, 2016. © 2022 An-My Lê, courtesy of the artist and
Marian Goodman Gallery 
of war and displacement, and a metaphor that invites viewers
to reflect on the circularity of time and history, the layering of
disparate geographies, and the intimacies that paradoxically
grow out of conflict.”

Born in Vietnam in 1960, An-My Lê came to the United States American militarism through Lê’s own Vietnamese heritage and
in 1975, after the fall of Saigon, as a political refugee. The sense of geographic displacement and cultural convergence.
first gallery in the exhibition features a selection from her Lê is known for intentionally ambiguous landscape photography,
earliest photographic series, Viêt Nam (1994–98), taken when and the following galleries are dedicated to two of Lê’s well-
she first returned to her native country. This black-and-white known photographic series that foreground her ability to layer
photographic work is shown with a newer color series from two landscapes, two wars, two time periods, and two cultural
2011, titled New Delta, which draws parallels between women histories across different mediums. Between Two Rivers
in the Mississippi River area of the southern United States and includes a selection of photographs and a newly rediscovered
the Mekong River in Vietnam’s south. Although made almost film from Lê’s Small Wars (1999–2002), featuring reenactments
20 years apart, both bodies of work explore the complexities of of the Vietnam War battleground staged on a key American

An-My Lê. High School Students Protesting Gun Violence, Washington Square Park, An-My Lê. Sailors on Liberty from USS Preble, Bamboo 2 Bar, Da Nang, Vietnam,
New York City, from the series Silent General. 2018. Inkjet print, 40 × 56 1/2″ (101.6 from the series Events Ashore, 2011. © 2022 An-My Lê, courtesy of the artist and
× 143.5 cm). © 2022 An-My Lê. Image courtesy of the artist Marian Goodman Gallery

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