Vietnamese-born artist combines nature and history Vietnamese-born artist combines nature and history (August 12, 2005)

Among other techniques, Binh Danh uses sunlight to create works on leaves

By Katie Vaughn

The latest visual arts exhibit at the Community School of Music and Arts provides a comprehensive introduction to a groundbreaking and increasingly prominent local artist. The show also offers an innovative approach to art and a unique look at the interconnections between humankind, nature and history.

The show features a handful of series by artist and photographer Binh Danh. Born in Vietnam in 1977, Danh and his family immigrated to the United States the same year. He earned a bachelor's degree in photography from San Jose State University and later a master's in studio art from Stanford and has shown his work extensively throughout the Bay Area.

Danh has become best known for an alternative photographic technique he created. His makes his chlorophyll prints by using the natural process of photosynthesis to transfer text and images onto leaves. It's a concept he explored as a child and later began using as an undergraduate.

"I noticed that when you place something on the lawn and remove it, it will leave a pale mark," he said.

To make a chlorophyll print, Danh chooses a document or photograph, scans it into his computer and prints a transparency of the scan. He then lays the transparency on a leaf and lets it sit in the sun, so the image is transferred onto the leaf.

At first glance, one of Danh's series of leaves appears to simply contain surface spots. But on further inspection, the leaves show to have the imprints of stars, constellations and galaxies. Danh said the ongoing collection represents a longtime interest of his.

"As a kid, I wanted to be a scientist," he said. "But it was actually the beauty of science I fell in love with."

Two other series in the exhibit come from a trip Danh took to Pulau Bidong, an island off the coast of Malaysia that held a now-deserted refugee camp where his family once spent time. From the many governmental documents and letters he found scattered across the landscape, he created a collection of chlorophyll prints and a series of seven large black and white photographs.

The leaf prints feature a variety of texts taken from the papers he found on the island. He placed the words at differing places and angles on the broad leaf surfaces, but the printings have a faded, quiet feel to them. Danh sought to show the impact the camp had on the island environment.

The first large photo on the long wall on which the works are hung depicts a woman - Danh's mother - on a beach holding a document issued from the United States Embassy. The paper contains information on the Danh family as well as several photographs. Other prints show scenes from the camp, such as a pile of gravestones in a cemetery and a Christ sculpture fallen from a large crucifix in a crumbling church.

"All the photographs are from the same island," he said. "It's what's left on the island."

In another photograph, Danh captured a jungle scene in which countless sheets of stark white paper intermingle with the island's dense vegetation. Not only does this photograph show where the artist found the documents he used in his leaf prints, but Danh said it illustrates his fascination with how the environment was adapting to the camp's presence.

"I was interested in how these letters were decomposing and breaking down, how they were disintegrating into the landscape," he said.

A final and poignant series in the show is made of leaves with photographs transferred onto them. The images come from a prison in 1970s Cambodia at which people were tortured and executed. Sadly, the three prisoners depicted on leaves in the show are children - two boys and a girl. Danh calls the series of untitled works "Ancestral Altar" in honor of his subjects.

"They're kind of altars to these people who really didn't have a proper funeral," he said of the prints.

Experienced together, the varied collections show Danh's artistic diversity. Furthermore, his images and the process he uses provide new ways of seeing how people, the environment and time interact.

"History is not something in the past but part of the present," he said.

INFORMATION
What: Photographic Prints by Binh Danh
Where: Community School of Music and Arts, 230 San Antonio Circle
When: Through Sept. 28. The Mohr Gallery is open Mon.-Fri. 9:30 a.m.-8 p.m., and Sat. 9 a.m.-3 p.m. An opening reception and artist's talk will be held this Friday from 6-8 p.m.
Call: (650) 917-6800 or visit www.arts4all.org

E-mail Katie Vaughn at kvaughn@mv-voice.com

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