| BINH DANH
One Week's Dead
August 14–October 23, 2007
Gallery Reception:
Thursday, September 6, 2007 from 5-8pm
Artist Lecture begins at 6:30pm
Regardless of generation, cultural background, or level of direct involvement, we cannot escape being touched by the faces in Binh Danh's series, titled One Week's Dead. Danh collects photographs and other remnants of the Vietnam War and re-processes them in a way that brings new light to a history marked by painful memories. A main source of the images is the 1969 Life magazine article, Faces of the American Dead: One Week's Dead. Portraits of two hundred forty-two young American men, casualties in one week of the war, were presented in a yearbook-style layout, triggering a powerful public response: "the entire nation mourned those soldiers...you saw those faces, that's what brought it home to everyone." (1) Danh uses photosynthesis to incorporate these portraits in the cells of leaves and grasses, symbolic of the jungle itself bearing witness to scars of war that remain in the landscape.
Danh is reconstructing histories that occurred before he was born, but have undoubtedly affected him. He was less than two years of age when his parents and siblings escaped their home in Vietnam to establish a new home in the United States. Rather than being caught in the pain of the past, he has transformed the experience into one that takes no sides, reminding us that wars may end, but they are never over. Nearly forty years later we are like the readers of Life magazine in 1969—held captive by Danh's resurrection of the young men's faces. Viewing Danh's fragile and sometimes faint forms rendered by sunlight onto leaves and grass, we are made aware of the permanence of even one human life lost.
Laura Guth
Assistant Director
Light Work
- Barbara Baker Burrows, "Photography Transformed, 1960-1999," from American Photography: A Century of Images, PBS, 1999.
Major exhibitions at Light Work are published in the award winning publication, Contact Sheet, available by subscription or individual order. In addition to the exhibition catalogue for One Week's Dead, Binh Danh is also featured in the Light Work Annual, featuring artists who participated in Light Work's Artist-in-Residence program in 2006.
Other information on Binh Danh can be found in the Light Work Online Collection.
Exhibition press release
Gallery hours for these exhibitions are Sunday to Friday, 10am-6pm, and by appointment. To schedule an appointment, please call 315-443-1300. Both the exhibition and reception are free and open to the public. Light Work invites groups and individuals to schedule tours and gallery talks of the exhibition and facility. Tour details
Thank Yous:
This exhibition was supported by PULSE, a collaborative project of the Division of Student Affairs and the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University. It received additional support from the 2007 Syracuse Symposium. Light Work would like to thank Kandice Salomone, associate dean for administration in The College of Arts and Sciences, who encourages interest in the Syracuse Symposium theme of justice and funded Binh Danh's artist lecture. Light Work is a member of CMAC, the Coalition of Museum and Art Centers. |
