Tuong (Julie) Vo grew up being (what used to be) 5 hours away from her maternal grandmother who lived in Long Khanh, Dong Nai province, Vietnam. Their relationship was built upon fleeting phone calls (which Tuong used to avoid) and occasional visits during the Tet holidays up until June 2011 when her grandmother was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
Tuong was 10 and her grandmother was 63 when they stopped seeing each other.
Laser-cut wooden characters
Screenprinted statement
Vinyl letters on glass panel
In an effort to reconcile with her internalized struggle with the loss of memories and communication gap between generations in her family, Vo peruses gestures that simulate the fugitive condition of memory--attempting to simultaneously create and deconstruct a visual portrait of her relationship with her late grandmother. Relying on the polysemous nature of the forgery, the installation attempts to synthesize the contrasting interpretations of the noun in a visual rendering of muted sorrows.
Propelled by the idea of archival texts and documents, Tuong tries to preserve her deteriorating memories of her late grandma by creating a typeface from her grandma's handwriting (extracted from the few mortgage and loan documents left behind) to write a letter professing love to her grandma.
Tuong attempts forgery (in legal terms) to forge a relationship she wishes she had with her grandma when they were both breathing.
