Thu-Van Tran's Rose-Toned Conjuring in New York

Violence and poetry converge in the artist's exhibition at Almine Rech, drawing attention to the impact of chemical warfare.

Born in Ho Chi Minh City in 1979, four years after the Vietnam War ended, the artist migrated to France with her family as a refugee at the age of two. Although Tran made her home in Paris and was nominated for France's most prestigious visual art award, the Marcel Duchamp Prize, in 2018, her country of birth remains central to her practice.

During her studies at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Tran began to develop her own language rooted in exploring social and historical issues. Considerations of war and colonisation have consequently permeated her wide-ranging practice, which spans painting, sculpture, video, and installation.

Showing at Almine Rech Tribeca, New York, until 15 June, Tran's solo show, In spring, ghosts return, continues her investigations into Vietnamese history. Central to the exhibition is the series 'Colors of Grey' (2012–ongoing), which references the Rainbow Herbicides used by the U.S. military in Vietnam between 1961 and 1971 to clear jungles and expose enemy soldiers. More than 19 million gallons of chemical compounds with cancer-causing residues were sprayed, with massive human health implications.

Each painting in the 'Colors of Grey' series takes its cue from these deadly compounds. Their compositions mirror the U.S. military's semantic gaslighting in concealing danger behind the benign phrasing 'Agent' in tandem with a colour—most famously Orange. Previously installed as a series of frescoes along the upper wall of Carnegie Museum's sculpture hall, the series takes on a more intimate format at Almine Rech, where visitors can observe the individual shades dissipating within clouds of grey, hinting at the underlying menace.

Take the bright cerulean of Colors of Grey (2024), in which visible drips of acrylic paint along the edges of the canvas attest to an intentional act of erasure. For Tran, this process replicates and attempts to clear the contamination of warfare and colonialism and the human and ecological damage. 'My mind was haunted by the first act of ecocide on earth and our collective imagination remembers the American aviation flying over the millenary forests of Vietnam to drop dioxins,' the artist told Surface Magazine ahead of her show opening.

Tran's paintings, arranged in a horizontal line at window height, nod to the immersive panoramas that served as a popular storytelling medium, particularly during the 19th century, when they were used for various purposes, from spreading wartime propaganda to perpetuating Orientalist stereotypes. While engaging with the medium, Tran favours abstraction to hint at the collapse in understanding that occurs when we neglect to account for another's perspective. Tran's works convey the history of Vietnam through a process that, albeit evading violence, is no less impactful in its messaging. —[O]

In spring, ghosts return is on view at Almine Rech Tribeca from 7 May to 15 June 2024.