Artwork Description
Lien Truong – …and still we banter with the Devil, Turner Carroll Collection
Dimensions: 72 x 96″ finished size
Year: 2017
Medium: oil, silk, acrylic,
19th century cotton,
antique 24k gold-leaf
obi thread on canvas
This painting was the very first in a series of paintings Lien Truong developed using elements of her heritage, namely ancient textiles, interspersed with megalithic tromp l’oeil abstracted elements.
Lien Truong blends American and Asian imagery and technique to examine the cultural and political conditions embodied in America’s founding and ongoing agrarian philosophy, and how this symbolizes the values of Manifest Destiny and the creation of America as a State formed by colonization, diverse immigrant groups and slaves. She uses images of violent American imperialism and the white male lineage of American painting (Lichtenstein, Hudson River School) to refer to the similar narrow perspective and global dominance-Station Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston
Lien sys of her work: “My current work transforms figures from the genre of Orientalist paintings. Recast as silhouettes painted in the palest yellow hue, they repudiate their sexualized and submissive origins. They are given agency, weaponized, engage in acts of self-love, and examine how gestures can both refer to and reject oppressive epistemologies. Bodies emerge out of silk anamorphic shapes, cradled by uncanny silhouettes of Orientalist ancestors. The paintings are a type of Asian Futurism, born from the violent histories descended from Orientalist ideologies; and the trauma, strength and love transcending transnational and generational boundaries, to create narratives of resistance and autonomy.”