NYAB Event - "Projects 93: Dinh Q. Lê" Exhibition

"Projects 93: Dinh Q. Lê" Exhibition

This event has ended.
At The Museum of Modern Art
Media: Sculpture, Installation, Video installation

Dinh Q. Lê (Vietnamese American, b. 1968) weaves together—both literally and figuratively—personal recollections with larger histories and mythologies often related to the Vietnam War, also known as the American War in Lê’s native country. For Projects 93, Lê presents "The Farmers and The Helicopters" (2006), an installation comprised of a three-channel video and a helicopter hand-built from scrap parts by Le Van Danh, a farmer, and Tran Quoc Hai, a self-taught mechanic. Lê’s video interlaces the personal recollections of the war by Vietnamese locals with clips from Western films. While many of the interviewees relayed childhood memories of the horrors associated with helicopters during the war, the helicopter-makers shared their vision of this machine as a means to simplify their life and bring strength to their community. Installed in adjacent galleries, the helicopter and the video projection offer a multilayered insight into the complex relationships between the Vietnamese individuals and the charged object of the helicopter.

[Image: Dinh Q. Lê in collaboration with Tran Quoc Hai, Le Van Danh, Phu-Nam Thuc Ha, and Tuan Andrew Nguyen "(still) The Farmers and The Helicopters" (2006) 3-channel video (color, sound), 15 min., and helicopter © 2010 Dinh Q. Lê. Courtesy the artist; P.P.O.W. Gallery, New York; Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Santa Monica; and Elizabeth Leach Gallery.]