Memory of Tuol Sleng, child 4

Artist Binh Danh American, born Vietnam, 1977

Date2008

MediumChlorophyll print and resin

Dimensionsheight and width: 9 × 8 in. (22.9 × 20.3 cm)
frame: 9 7/8 × 9 7/8 × 1 1/2 in. (25.1 × 25.1 × 3.8 cm)

ClassificationsPhotography

Credit LineGift of the artist

Object number2021.12.1

On View

Not on view

Label TextDanh makes his unique photographs by placing a photographic negative on a leaf and exposing it to the sun for varying lengths of time, sometimes up to several days, letting the photosynthesis process of the sun and the leaf create the images. He preserves the final print by sealing it in resin.
These works are from a larger series, The Botany of Tuol Sleng, based on archival portraits from a prison in Cambodia where the Khmer Rouge imprisoned, photographed, and killed thousands of people between 1975 and 1979. Danh’s work reconstructs the past, both personal and collective, and his methods and materials comment on the fragility and elusive nature of memory and history.
[L. Dougherty, 2024]ProvenanceCreated Gilroy, CA, 2008; collection of the artist; given to NCMA, 2021.Exhibition HistoryRaleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection Reimagined," June 5, 2024-November 18, 2024. Object Rights Statement

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