Binh Dahn

“We Die a Little, They Die a Little”
Perspectives on a Recent Exhibition of Binh Danh's Work


In a room that accommodated only ten people, Binh Danh conversed with a select group of students regarding his recent work with chlorophyll prints: the transfer of photographic images onto live plants through the process of photosynthesis. A negative of a photo is attached to a living plant leaf and as photosynthesis occurs, the clear portions of the negative allows light and keeps that portion of the leaf alive, whereas the darkened portions of the negative blocks the light and ultimately terminates the photosynthesis process. The result is a positive image on a living plant.

Danh’s common focus for his work is death. His recent body of work has been to transfer images of Vietnam refugees whom were mass murdered on a small island onto chlorophyll prints. He indicated what would happen if the people in these pictures were forgotten: “we die a little, they die a little.” Perhaps, Danh posits that nothing ever truly dies. As his work on chlorophyll prints evolves it appears that his intention is not to kill plants, but to alter their purpose.

His work is not unique in that respect: he joins a long line of artists whom have endeavored to alter the purpose of objects, such as Man Ray’s The Gift. The great difference between the two artists is Ray’s aim to render objects useless, which is the opposite goal of Danh: to liberate the viewer’s pre-conceived notions about a leaf by adding more function rather than reducing it.

The most compelling thematic element of his work is the tendency for objects that are eternally produced- such as leaves with the changing of the season- to evolve so that it mimics contemporary life. As seen in his piece Camouflage, the leaf mimics American camouflage used to hide soldiers in the Vietnam jungle. The irony is that this particular camouflage was used to mimic the surrounding leaves and by printing man-made camouflage patterns onto the leaf, the leaf is made to mimic itself. Danh imprints the inorganic pattern onto something organic, which puts the purpose of both the camouflage and the leaf into question. And one is compelled to ask: what is hiding from what?

A final aspect of his exhibit was his play with the word “loss.” The entire exhibition was chlorophyll prints for dead soldiers, murdered refugees, and forgotten Vietnam landscapes. Everywhere it seemed as though loss was his overlying theme. It was easy to mistake it as such, however, he mentioned a stack of letters his parents carried with them on their way to America: “I could tell that a worm had eaten through several of the letters, and I wondered what happened to the paper, because I know it didn’t disappear.” The overlying theme of the exhibition was not loss, but metamorphosis. Through the use of Danh’s chlorophyll prints, leaves and images are only altered because nothing disappears.