IN LOS ANGELES:

Sculpture of Ruth Asawa: Contours in the Air opens tomorrow (Saturday) at the Japanese American National Museum.

I could not recommend this show more. So much so that I wrote about it here (along with the recent Art of Gaman exhibition).

On Sunday at 2pm, be sure to check out discussion between the curator, Daniell Cornell, and Ruth Asawa's daughter, Aiko Cuneo. Karen Higa, who wrote an essay included in the exhibition catalog, will moderate.

IN SAN FRANCISCO:

Detail from An-My Le's "Lesson", Small Wars series

Also this Saturday, the San Francisco State University Fine Arts Gallery will hold a series of events related to their current exhibition, Witness to War: Revisiting Vietnam in Contemporary Art. The exhibition, which closes March 15, includes the work of Thai Bui, Binh Danh, Harrell Fletcher, Joyce Kozloff, An-My Le, Dinh Q. Le, Daniel J. Martinez, Long Nguyen and Martha Rosler.

1:00pm - Artists panel discussion with artists Binh Danh, Thai Bui and Long Nguyen, moderated by art historian Boreth Ly.
2:30pm - Nguyen Dance Company - modern interpretation of a traditional Vietnamese dance.
3:30pm - West Coast premiere of filmmaker Bui Hoai Mai's documentary, The Rain on the River (2005)
Entry to the exhibition and events is free.

Of particular note in the exhibition are a few examples of An-My Le's photographic series Small Wars, which she took at Vietnam War reenactment sessions in Virginia, and Dinh Q. Le's psychedelic collages using a traditional mat weaving technique and iconic images from film and media. Binh Danh also shows a depature from his signature photosynthetic pieces with an exploration of the 1960s Swamp Thing action figures, which stemmed from a comic book series of the same name that dealt with war themes--Agent Orange in particular.

A questionable inclusion is Harrell Fletcher's video "The American War," essentially photos of the displays at The War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City. It strikes me as a grand ripping-off, and the Vietnamese perspective that it ostensibly presents to American audiences would best be conveyed differently.

Much of the show seems to be a discussion of media and is influence on our perception of the war, incorporating found objects and images. It made me sad to think that though a great many people were profoundly affected by the war not so long ago, younger generations are almost entirely reliant on the era's photojournalists and cinematic representations in order to begin to comprehend the war. Will we even be able to? I guess that's the case with any war, when you don't experience it firsthand.