Thuong Hoai Tran is an interdisciplinary artist who was born in Tây Ninh, Vietnam and raised in Emporia, Kansas. She received her BFA in Painting and Printmaking at Emporia State University and is currently attending the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for her MFA in Printmedia. Being a Vietnamese immigrant, this part of her identity informs and influences a large part of her artwork.
I often encounter questions about my identity as a Vietnamese immigrant living in the United States. Creating has become a method of self-discovery, learning, and healing. Most of my work features a level of distortion or fragmentation. Often, a portion of the original information gets lost through translation or manipulation of materials, which becomes a vital component in illustrating the difficulties of navigating between different identity spaces.
In my recent works, I have been examining the process of weaving, disassembling clothes made in Vietnam, and recreating family photographs to learn more about their origin. My work focuses heavily on the process, time, and labor of making as a means of connecting to my family members, revisiting memories, and uncovering lost histories. The endless hours spent on the loom or rendering their likeness in printmaking techniques create a space for me to contemplate and physically spend time with their image. This method becomes an approach of connecting to my familial history, paying homage, and filling in the gaps created through various barriers such as language, displacement, and generational disconnect.