Binh Danh The Grass Over Graves

Artist's Talk & Exhibition Reception:
January 31, 5:30pm

In his work, Binh Danh investigates his Vietnamese heritage and our collective memory of war using alternative photographic techniques such as the chlorophyll printing process, in which photographic images appear embedded in plant leaves through the action of photosynthesis. Included in this exhibition will be unique daguerreotypes created in Lexington while Danh was a visiting professor in the Art Department at Washington and Lee in 2009. Continuing his exploration of themes of death and mortality, Danh spent time photographing in the Stonewall Jackson Cemetery and the Rockbridge County landscape as it transitioned from fall to winter. Binh Danh’s work has been exhibited at museums across the country and is represented in the collections of the Corcoran Art Gallery, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, the deYoung Museum, and the George Eastman House, among many others. To view recent work, visit Danh's website:
http://www.binhdanh.com/

Right: William W. Smith 21, 2008, Chlorophyll print on grass and resin, 17 x 14 in.
Above: Leaves of Grass # 2 (detail), 2009, Photogram on daguerreotype, 8.5 x 6.5 in.

 

Over the past three years, Danh has collaborated with poet Robert Schultz on image/poem pairings that have been published in VQR, Subtropics, the Northwest Review, and on the website of Scribner's Best American Poetry anthology. Danh's daguerreotype  of Schultz's poem "Amulet" is included in this exhibition. Typesetter and printer Terrence Chouinard has designed a broadside featuring Danh's image with the poem. The limited edition print is available by contacting Robert Schultz: schultz@roanoke.edu.