Photo by Dexter Bercero

Vietnamese art exhibit promises generational ties

An exhibition of works by Southern California-based Vietnamese-American artists opened Saturday in the College of the Arts B and C galleries. It ran through April 19.

The exhibit, titled "A Celebration of Vietnamese Art," was presented as part of this month's ongoing celebration of Asian/Pacific American heritage, said coordinator Mimi Vinh.

"Our focus with this show is to share Vietnamese culture with the students and staff here on campus," she said. "There will be artists of different generations, raised here and in Vietnam exhibiting."

The exhibit is also intended to introduce Vietnamese-American students to art produced by artists who have shared their experience as immigrant and first generation Americans, Vinh said.

"Many of these artists are well known in Vietnam, and have continued their careers here," she said. "We feel very honored to have them exhibiting here."

Much of the work on display links western and eastern themes, specifically those pertinent to the Vietnamese-American experience.

Ann Phone's "Inside/Outside," for example, portrays a Vietnamese child seated and curled into a position of withdrawal. Boldly scrawled English words fill the left side of the canvas around the child's head, while inside lightly drawn Vietnamese phrases s eem to vie for space in the child's consciousness. Most of the exhibiting artists are survivors of Vietnam's civil war, which proved a seminal event in the history of both that country and the United States.

One of the show's most moving works is Chi Le's "Only Women Bleed," a collection of three Vietnam-era infantry helmets painted with raised, swirling roses against a slashing field of blue, black, yellow and green. Before each helmet is a stone reading "To My Wife," "To My Daughter," and "To My Mother."

"During the Vietnam war or any war, the women suffer the most," Le said. "Men fight the wars and die, but their wives and daughters and mothers are left to suffer."

One of the helmets featured in the work was worn by Le's brother, as a member of the doomed South Vietnamese forces in the last days of the war.

"When we left in 1975, he could not come," she said. "He had to stay with the army." Le's brother joined his family in America after Saigon fell.

Elsewhere, two works by Orange County artist Nguyen Viet combine Buddhist themes and native Vietnamese materials, such as bamboo, to create a meditative and aesthetically stunning visual ensemble.

"The Banyan," a mixed media piece, features as its focal point a root from the banyan tree, a central motif in Buddhist imagery. The work is intended to suggest the importance of a solid base in any endeavor, Viet said.

"Bigger roots at the bottom mean bigger branches on the top," he says. "That's one point of our philosophy in Buddhism."

Viet said he hopes the themes he emphasizes in his art will speak to Vietnamese students and help them understand the world they left behind and the world in which they now live.

"Some of the Vietnamese students on this campus were born in Vietnam, but some were born here and will never see Vietnam," he said. "Vietnam is part of my memories. It's something I can give these students to help them here."