MyLoan Dinh
MyLoan Dinh is a multidisciplinary artist, living and working in Charlotte, North Carolina. Here she speaks to our Curator, Lynn Seraina Battaglia about the pandemic, cultural identity and what’s next for her…
LSB: Hello, and thank you for agreeing to talk to us about your work. There's a few things I wanna talk about - it's been a turbulent time with the pandemic, U.S. elections, your catalogue...Let's start with the basics. You're working between Charlotte, NC and Berlin. How did you experience this last year (and up to now)? How has the pandemic affected your practice?
MD: Yes, it is unsettling times indeed. Living and working between the two countries has offered me different perspectives. In a way that has been good but is complicated. I usually spend two months in Berlin during the summer but during the pandemic, my family and I were in Germany for four months because of travel restrictions. I voted from abroad for the November elections because my flights were cancelled. It was a relief to see the outcome went for Biden and Harris.
When the pandemic hit, we were in Charlotte and I was so disturbed by what was happening, I could not concentrate in my studio. Fortunately, our home and my studio is situated on a property surrounded by forest (in the middle of the city) so I spent a good part of the first months being outside in nature and working in the garden. That kept me grounded...calmed my nerves. As the months progressed, I was able to go into the studio and work. I was awarded a fellowship to go to Vietnam to learn Son Mai (a traditional Vietnamese craft) but that has been postponed because of Covid. I find it very difficult to make plans.
LSB: I'm going to come back to the fellowship and your connection to Vietnam in a bit, but speaking about making plans first, how are you experiencing the fact that one cannot make plans in your practice. What I mean is, most exhibitions and plans have been postponed indefinitely, so artists are often NOT working towards a specific deadline - sometimes for the first time in their career - and are producing works because they want to more than anything else. Do you get that too?
MD: It is a very different way of working. Challenging for me because the deadlines keep me on track and motivated. I still have two projects (a museum show and a public art commission) in the works with tentative schedules/deadlines depending on how the Covid cases and vaccinations go. It's kinda crazy and surreal that our creative interaction and practice is dictated by public health policy. At this time, I am making studio work that I know may or may not be experienced in person by the public anytime soon, which is weird because the themes of my work usually address very timely social issues.
LSB: I can imagine - without deadlines I would never get anything done. Going back to the fellowship you have mentioned. You came to the US with your family as a refugee from Vietnam when you were a kid. In your work you incorporate these experiences and your cultural heritage. At the same time you do address current social issues as well. Can you tell me more about how your history and your present form your practice?
MD: Yes, my family and I escaped by sea in 1975. We were in three refugee camps before we finally resettled in NC. So I grew up in a way between two cultures - Vietnamese (my parents are very traditional) and US American. There are some major clashes in traditions.
So the questions of identity and belonging were always present in my upbringing and naturally made their way into my work. As a Southeast Asian woman there are many expectations and stereotypes that I had to reckon with - both from my family and from societal. Those cultural tropes still exist.
Bearing witness to our times has always been a reality for artists. The most recent - Jan 6 - the Capitol insurrection by White supremacists and Trump supporters was terrible but not surprising. I spoke to my parents on the phone about it... honestly extremely saddened and worried about the state of our democracy and how fragile it is. Been thinking a lot about how our family escaped a war torn country and we experienced a failed government first hand. What came afterwards was horrific and should never be repeated. I was quite young, but my parents certainly are having their trauma triggered by the Capitol event. These kinds of significant events are embedded in our collective history, in my work I try to make the connection on a personal level. Taking smaller bites of information - otherwise it becomes overwhelming. In many ways, my work technically is putting small broken fragments together to create a whole.
LSB: With 'We See Heaven Upside Down' you are responding to issues of migration and identity in an ongoing performative project. This is also often in public - how has this been received?
MD: For the most part, very well. The project is a collaboration with many artists from different disciplines and cultural backgrounds/histories - some come from direct migratory experiences and some are native born. When the question is asked to viewers/audiences about their own family heritage, the anti-immigration sentiments are usually dismantled. Most of us come from somewhere, right? But we have gotten some vocal push back from hard liners. Some folks are not up for having a dialog or open discussion.
I do miss having the in-person public interaction - good and bad. I miss energy from live audiences. I can't see a public performance happening before the end of 2021.
LSB: What’s next for you?
MD: Hopefully staying healthy and sane.
Working on a series I started last year with sculptural works made with clay conversation hearts on boxing gloves and speed balls. Continuing my experimentation with eggshell fragments on objects (I hope to finally travel to Vietnam to really learn the traditional craft from a Son Mai master.)
Fingers crossed with the pandemic, a three month show at the Mint Museum of Art (May - Aug, 2021) and installing pedestrian friendly public art commission on Charlotte crosswalks.
Living life with intention. Keeping my options and mind open. That's the best we can all hope for in 2021.
LSB: Thank you for your time today!
