Hien Minh: Lotusthetics
@ Comfort Station Logan Square
2579 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60647
Opening Saturday, September 6th, from 4PM - 7PM
On view through Sunday, September 28th
At Comfort Station, Le Hien Minh presents her newest moving image work, Lotusthetics. This layered visual collage is composed of hundreds of images drawn from a wide range of sources, including Hollywood films, news media, historical archives, celebrity culture and spiritual iconography from both American and Vietnamese contexts.
Asian women in the United States are often viewed through a reductive lens due to their minority status and limited representation in popular culture. Portrayals frequently rely on narrow cultural touch-points or trope, including Orientalist and Ornamentalist stereotypes such as the “Dragon Lady.” Lotusthetics interrogates and reconfigures these American cultural symbols of female Asian-ness, combining them with imagery from the Vietnamese contexts.
Le Hien Minh weaves these visuals together to create stark juxtapositions between disparate worldviews. The legacy of the Vietnam War serves as a bridge, connecting these two perspectives. The result is a surreal, sometimes jarring meditation that transcends familiar symbols to evoke something new—what Minh terms a “matriarchal vision.”
Le Hien Minh is a Vietnamese-born artist whose work is deeply influenced by her experiences growing up in post-war Vietnam. Primarily working with sculpture and installation, she also incorporates moving images, drawing, and text, blending socio-historical and mystical themes with contemporary issues to spark dialogue about the human-made systems governing our world.
Highlight exhibitions include the Vietnam National Museum of Fine Arts, Sculpture Expanded by the Association of Finnish Sculptors in Helsinki, the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum in Japan, and the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago. Her work has been featured in publications such as The Brooklyn Rail, ArtAsiaPacific, Ocular Magazine, and Chicago Reader, among others. Recent fellowships and grants include awards from the Finnish Cultural Foundation, the Asian Cultural Council, the Goethe-Institut, the 3Arts Ignite Fund, and the Chicago Cultural Grant (DCASE).
@le_hien_minh
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Tags: Chicago, Comfort Station Logan Square, Hien Minh, Logan Square, Lotusthetics
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