Dinh Q. Lê (b. 1968) uses photography as both a technology for image making and an apparatus for distributing ideological narratives. The range of techniques he employs expands the category of photography to reveal the failings of individual memory and collective perceptions. P.P.O.W will present works from his 2001 series "The Texture of Memory", stark white monochromatic embroideries that are difficult to perceive visually. Created in Vietnam, they depict men and women murdered in Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge. A response to symptoms of post-traumatic stress, specifically reports of hysterical blindness among Cambodian refugees, these pieces are meant to be touched in order to “see” the image. Lê has exhibited at the 2013 Carnegie International at the Carnegie Museum of Art, PA and documenta 13, Kassel, Germany in 2012. His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, NY; Carnegie Museum, PA; MoMA PS1, NY; The Museum of Fine Arts, TX; and the Asia Society, NY, among many others. Dinh Q. Lê: True Journey Is Return, a traveling retrospective with a recently published full-color catalog, is currently on view at the San Jose Museum of Art. He is a co-founder of the nonprofit organization Sàn Art. Lê lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
