Explore Dinh Q. Lê’s Moving ‘Crossing the Farther Shore’ Installation
Diving into the latest exhibition from Vietnamese American fine arts photographer Dinh Q. Lê, Walley Films created this short doc to tell the story behind the beautiful art project Crossing the Farther Shore.
Incorporating Lê’s intriguing style of photography installations, Crossing the Farther Shore strings together thousands of photographs taken in Southern Vietnam between the 1940s and 1980s. Hand-stitching each photo together with string, Lê created a weaved sculpture of history from imagery of the daily and family life of Southern Vietnam.
Here’s a brief look at some of the beautiful images of Lê and his installation that Walley Films captured while shooting this short:
Given the desire of the Northern Vietnamese communist government to wash out any trace of Southern Vietnam pre–1975, it’s a miracle any of these even survived, let alone in the numbers Lê managed to recover. But recovered they were, and in an attempt to forever seal these as pieces of history and art, rather than pieces of paper rotting away on a shelf, Lê brought them to life in this unique format.
The documentary comes in at just over six minutes, so it won’t take much time to watch, and your day will be richer for it. If you’d like to see the exhibition in person, it is on view at the Rice Gallery from now through August 28th; however, since most of us won’t make it to Texas any time soon, you can listen to the story behind how this project came to be and take in the installation as much as possible through the video and photos above.
Image credits: All photographs courtesy of Walley Films
