Lecture by Vietnamese American photographer Binh Danh will kick off 2007 Syracuse Symposium on Sept. 6

Lecture by Vietnamese American photographer Binh Danh will kick off 2007 Syracuse Symposium on Sept. 6August 24, 2007Jessica Heckmanjhheckma@syr.edu

The Syracuse Symposium, the intellectual and artistic festival hosted by Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences, will begin its 2007 series on Thursday, Sept. 6, with an artist’s lecture by Vietnamese American photographer Binh Danh.

Danh’s exhibition, “One Week’s Dead,” is on display at the Light Work Gallery, 316 Waverly Ave., through Oct. 23. Danh will speak on his work Sept. 6 at 6:30 p.m. in Watson Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public, and parking is available in the Booth Garage for $3.50 (garage closes at 10 p.m.). A gallery reception will be held from 5-8 p.m.

Danh has quietly gained recognition on the international art scene for his Vietnam War-inspired work. The exhibition features his most recognizable work, comprising appropriated war images that are printed directly onto leaves or grass, a process Danh invented while in college. On his first trip to Vietnam since his family immigrated to the United States, Danh was confronted by the remains of the war, and he observed that memories of the war’s devastation had become part of daily life. It was this experience that inspired him to create chlorophyll prints of found images from the Vietnam War with tropical leaves, sharing, in his words, the “epiphany that the memory of those people and events will reverberate forever through the country’s landscape.”

Danh was born in Vietnam in 1977. He received a B.F.A. degree from San Jose State University and an M.F.A. degree from Stanford University. His work has been exhibited in museums and galleries nationally and internationally. He participated in Light Work’s Artist in Residence Program in 2005. His work can be seen at http://www.binhdanh.com.

Light Work’s gallery hours are Sunday-Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., and by appointment. For more information, contact Light Work at 443-1300.

The Syracuse Symposium is a semester-long intellectual and artistic festival, hosted by SU’s College of Arts and Sciences, that celebrates interdisciplinary thinking, imagination and creation. The theme for the 2007 series is “Justice.” For more information on the Syracuse Symposium, visit http://symposium.syr.edu.

Light Work is a nonprofit, artist-run organization dedicated to the support of artists working in photography and electronic media. For more information on Light Work, visit http://www.lightwork.org.

Light Work is a member of the Coalition of Museum and Art Centers (CMAC) at SU. For more information on CMAC, visit http://cmac.syr.edu.