IN CONV E RSATION W ITH VI E TNA M E S E ARTIST DINH Q L E – TAASA Review June 2011

Michael Young I n December last year American Vietnamese artist Dinh Q Le at home in Ho Chi Minh City heard about the refugee boat tragedy that had unfolded on the razor sharp rocks south of Christmas Island’s Flying Fish Cove.

The video footage he saw on his computer, shot by locals, made his jaw drop and became the catalyst for his multi-media installation Erasure which goes on display from 8 July at Sydney’s Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation (SCAF).

It also brought back to him the terrifying personal ordeal of fleeing Vietnam as a child boat person decades earlier. The tiny island, 2600 kilometres northwest of Australia and only 360 south of Indonesia has in recent years become the port of destination for asylum seekers fleeing from Asia; critically it is Australian territory...