Epistolary Lineage (2018)

2018. Metallic and house paint on printed canvas. 96x48 in. (244x122 cm)

Drawing upon the tradition of Abstract Expressionism, I put my own mark on a letter written by my grandfather to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, formally requesting a marriage and celebration for my parents in 1986. The piece speaks to my own lineage of immigration, as well as the interchange of culture between East and West that deeply influenced the Abstract Expressionists, who viewed eastern calligraphy as abstract marks. I use the formal element of the geometrical grid to speak to the vestiges of totalitarian and rigid Communist structures pervading my home country.