Thursday, November 12, 2009, 5:30pm  |  Center for Creative Photography 108

Lecture: Reading, Making and Working-through 

Since 2001, Lana Lin and H. Lan Thao Lam have developed projects that raise questions about nationalism and national identity, the contingency of memory, and the haunting of daily life by the specter of war, militarism, and socio-political inequities. Inspired by a particular site, historical incident, or political issue, their work emerges from the interrelation between current events and residues of the past. Trained in architecture, H. Lan Thao Lam uses photography, sculpture, and installation to address social memories of time and place. Informed by critical cinema, Lana Lin is interested in the processes of identification.

Lin + Lam’s projects have taken shape in sculptural forms, full-scale installations, 16mm film, photography, writing, and performance. The environments the artists construct, whether physical or psychic, invite viewers into an excavation process in which they may contemplate the inscription of history, power, desire and memory. The collaborative team will speak about their working process, which evolves from in depth research to determining the form most appropriate to each project.

Lin + Lam’s work has been exhibited at international venues including the New Museum, The Kitchen, and the Queens Museum, New York, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, Arko Arts Center (Korean Arts Council,) Seoul, the Oberhausen Short Film Festival, Germany, and the 3rd Guangzhou Triennial, China.

Beginning in mid-October, Lin + Lam will exhibit in the Joseph Gross Gallery. The exhibition brings Departure, a 3-channel video installation, to the US for the first time. Shot from the exploratory perspective of a moving car, cyclo, and trains, the video travels through three postcolonial Asian cities: Taipei, Shanghai, and Hanoi. The transformation of a road, a bridge, and railways parallels the cycle of construction and destruction that distinguish these sites of occupation. The impact of modernization and foreign intervention on these urban environments is viewed through different modes of transportation. Lin + Lam’s other recent projects have revolved around issues of immigration, trauma, and estrangement as an effect of language and translation. Unisex (2008), a mixed media installation and public performance, maps the history and artistry of grooming as it has evolved through socio-economic shifts in a diverse Latino community. Through counter-archival practices, Unidentified Vietnam (2001-2006), addresses propaganda and myths of democracy. Even The Trees Would Leave (2005), a photo/text project, uncovers residual trauma in Hong Kong’s former Vietnamese refugee camps that now house golf driving ranges and family recreation centers.

H. Lan Thao Lam received her MFA from CalArts. Lana Lin received her MFA from Bard College. They have been honored with awards from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Princess Grace Foundation, among others, and are 2009 -10 Vera List Center for Art and Politics Fellows.

Transculturations: Cultural Hybridity in American Art | VASE 2009-2010