Tran Tran / Garden Tubs (Chicago)

 Garden Tubs (2021) by artist Tran Tran

Whether consciously or subconsciously, my parents recreated the setting in which they raised my sister and me in Vietnam twenty three years ago for my nieces in San Jose, California today. In my Garden Tubs photos, vegetation of various kinds decorates the background. An intense contrast lies between the two makeshift tubs, a  heavy ceramics planter versus a light-weight plastic container most likely bought at Target or Home Depot. These two images are separated by about twenty three years. In an attempt to visualize the journey between these scenes, I put the images through an Adobe Illustrator process that breaks them down into fields of colors and blends them in selected steps. The shapes are broken into this turbulent, nearly incomprehensible matrix from one image to another. 

When I think back about how my family immigrated to the United States and how we assimilated into the culture here, I cannot remember much but this overall feeling of loss and confusion.