Vietnamese art exhibit puts politics on display

Sponsored by the Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Assn., the exhibit includes paintings, photographs, multimedia displays and performances on topics including politics, war, sexuality and youth culture. Called "F.O.B. II: Art Speaks," the name is a play on the pejorative moniker "fresh off the boat," a term given to immigrants who came to the United States by boat, including hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese refugees who escaped after the war ended.

Art has a complicated past in Little Saigon, where the line between free expression and traitorous behavior is razor-thin. The protesters who demonstrated against the foot spa image said then that despite the abundant freedoms in America, artists should avoid images that could insult or inflame a community still reconciling its past.

The exhibit will test the Vietnamese American community, said Linda Vo, chair of UC Irvine's Asian American Studies department.

"It has been difficult for the Vietnamese community to express their experiences," said Vo, who also sits on the art association's advisory board. "The war and what happened afterward, of being refugees and having to restart their lives, left scars that have never been dealt with. None of us know if the community is ready for this now, or if it will take another 10 years."

One of the more provocative pieces is a photograph by Brian Doan of a girl in Vietnam wearing a red tank top with a yellow star, a representation of Vietnam's official flag. On a table next to her is a small bust of former communist leader Ho Chi Minh and a cellphone.

"This piece uses the communist flag but isn't celebratory of communism," said Lan Duong, a co-curator and assistant professor of media and cultural studies at UC Riverside. "The communist flag isn't used just as a political symbol, but of what is going on in Vietnam and the kinds of modes of consumption that marks youth culture."

Another installation is an interactive voting booth where people can choose which flag represents them: the flag of South Vietnam, the official flag of Vietnam, or they can use crayons to create their own flag. Flags are important symbols in the Vietnamese community, where the banner of South Vietnam still hangs on lampposts and storefronts and the official Vietnamese flag is stomped on during protests.

The exhibit also features submissions from Chau Huynh, the artist who created the controversial foot spa installation. In one painting, she intersperses written lyrics of the anthems of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the former Republic of Vietnam.