40 years after the Chaos that was Vietnam

comes a war testimony that make your heart wrench.
 

Miami: Save a date for Huong 7pm – 10pm meet the artist Friday April 22nd, 2015 and view her Art documentary of American War history.

It has been said that great art come from great sorrow. Huong endured enough sorrows for a lifetime in her first 25 years.

“Every time I look at the horror on the faces of today’s war victims I see myself in them.” She explains. “ Suddenly all the pain and anger I’ve buried deep inside me burst onto the surface like a bleeding wound.” Blood-drenched, dark sinister visions replaced sunny vistas. Horrific visions with titles like “Faces of War,” “The War Wedding Gift,” “ Wrath of Flags” underscored the visual anguish. The slaughter of the men, the maiming and abuse of children and the enslavement and debasement of women all became a part of Huong’s dark vision.

Wounded birds, skull and bones, screaming children, leering death heads and bloodstained flags of the 10 nations that fought on Vietnam’s soil drape the hellish landscapes tiny Huong painstankingly creates on oversized canvases.

“I thought I could do ‘The War Pieces’ and then move on,” says the artist in her South Miami Studio. “ Now I know it will be with me the rest of my life, as long as, the war still escalating around the world.”

Over nearly four decades, she has addressed human rights, justice, war and ultimately, peace.

“She has an amazing life story that has influences her art and her activism,” says Carol Damian, director and chief curator of the Patricia and Phillip Frost museum at Florida International University (FIU).

“She would not have this ability if she hadn’t suffered herself and totally appreciates what it is like to be oppressed exiled and alone,” Damian says. “Her work forces conversations, and her larger mission being peace and compassion.”