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Phung Huynh - Vann Nath

INTRO:

This work is an interesting piece created by the artist Phung Huynh in 2019. The piece is that of a graphite drawing, utilizing a pink donut box as a canvas. The drawing displays a side profile portrait of an older man, who we as viewers can assume to be Vann Nath, which is the title of the work. The drawing is also encased in a stylistic border surrounding the portrait, alluding to the artist's Cambodian heritage. What is inciting to note is the subject of the piece, that being a portrait of Vann Nath who is a Cambodian painter, writer, and artist who used his talents to promote Civil Rights. Nath memoirs his paintings of the Tuol Sleng Prison, and as a testimony to the injustices faced from the Khmer Rouge and the communist regime during that of the Cambodian Genocide. Hunyh works to encapsulate her heritage through her subject matter to call on to the point of Civil justices within Cambodia.

ARTIST BIO:

"Phung Huynh is a Los Angeles-based artist and educator whose practice includes drawing, painting, public art, and community engagement. Her work explores cultural perception and representation. Huynh challenges beauty standards by constructing images of the Asian female body vis-à-vis plastic surgery to unpack how contemporary cosmetic surgery can whitewash cultural and racial identity. Her work of drawings and prints on pink donut boxes explores the complexities of assimilation and cultural negotiation among Cambodian and Vietnamese refugees who have resettled in the United States."

RESPONSE:

This work is from Hunyh’s collection of her Donut box works, in which “She draws the portraits of first-generation and second-generation Cambodian Americans on pink doughnut boxes' '. The use of these donut boxes is a symbol of a well-known sweet treat and is an emblem of Cambodian Refugees as “Close to 90% of California’s donut shops are mom-and-pop businesses run by Cambodian immigrants or Cambodian Americans (Khmericans).” Her medium is a direct notion to her heritage as well as thematic response to the integration of Cambodians in America, and how they are represented. Her subject choice to this specific piece is a clear depiction of activism and hope within Cambodia, in which she then coincides with that of the American Dream, showing aspects of immigration and Cambodian influence in that of America.


 

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