Dinh Q. Lê
Untitled (Russian Roulette, The Deer Hunter, P.O.W.)

Artist Dinh Q. Lê (Vietnamese–American, born Vietnam, 1968–2024)Vietnamese–American, born Vietnam, 1968–2024

CultureVietnamese-American

Titles

Untitled (Russian Roulette, The Deer Hunter, P.O.W.)
from the series From Vietnam to Hollywood

Date2000

MediumChromogenic prints

DimensionsSheet (each): 19 1/2 × 29 1/2 in. (49.5 × 74.9 cm)
Overall: 63 1/2 × 30 in. (161.3 × 76.2 cm)
Mount: 68 1/2 × 35 in. (174 × 88.9 cm)
Frame (outer): 70 × 36 5/8 × 2 3/4 in. (177.8 × 93 × 7 cm)

Credit LineGift of Anne Wilkes Tucker in honor of Peter C. Marzio

Object number2010.28.A-.C

Not on view

Explore Further

Department

Photography

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

DescriptionThrough his
appropriated imagery and the synthesis of traditional Vietnamese craft and
photography, Dinh Q. Lê literally weaves together multiple aspects of
collective memory and responses to the Vietnam War. Here, two photographs, one
color and one black-and-white, are woven together using a traditional grass mat
weaving technique the artist inherited from his aunt, creating a rough diamond
pattern that forces the viewer to flicker back and forth between the actions
taking place in each image. The black-and-white image, which the artist found
in a historical book on the conflict, features two North Vietnamese women
guarding an American POW pilot. The color image is a film still taken from The Deer Hunter (1978). It features a
POW who is forced to play Russian roulette, something all three main characters
were forced to do as Vietcong POWs.

ProvenanceAnne Wilkes Tucker, Houston; given to MFAH, 2010.
Exhibition History"HCP 25th Anniversary Retrospective," Houston Center for Photography, November 3–December 17, 2006.

"Ruptures and Continuities: Photography Made after 1960 from the MFAH Collection," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, February 21–May 9, 2010.

"WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY: Images of Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath," The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, November 11, 2012–February 3, 2013.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

No visible marks or inscriptions

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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