Object number2024.6.1

Constellations XII, Whitehaven, Memphis

Date2019

Artist Tommy Kha (American, born 1988)

CultureAmerican

MediumPigment print

EditionEdition 1 of 5, plus 5 artist's proofs

DimensionsSheet: 23 1/4 x 28 3/4 in. (59.1 x 73 cm)
Image: 21 5/8 x 27 in. (54.9 x 68.6 cm)
Matted: 26 1/2 x 32 in. (67.3 x 81.3 cm)

Credit LinePurchase, Advisory Council for Photography

On View

Not on view

Period21st c

Classification(s)

Photograph

Vassar Exhibitions

In Pieces: Fragmentation and the Body

Label TextWitty and playful, Tommy Kha’s photographs incorporate props, masks, cardboard cutouts, and memorabilia from his childhood home in Memphis, Tennessee. Kha’s experimental use of cardboard cutouts, especially as stand-ins for himself, nods to the impossibility of fully representing the complexity of a person’s life or experiences. Kha’s work is improvisational and autobiographical, and often engages with the history of his family; he is a first-generation American in a family of Chinese immigrants who escaped war after the fall of Saigon. His performances for the camera often include cut-outs of himself that reference the ambiguity of “being there and not there,” as in this photograph of his mother in her home. As a Chinese-American queer person who grew up in the American South, Kha asks: “How do we see ourselves when we are not represented? What’s the best way to arrive at ourselves through photography?” He uses staged photographs and wry humor to pose these questions in visual terms, rather than try to answer them.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email loebcollections@vassar.edu