Tommy Kha @ Baxter St at the Camera Club of New York

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Tommy Kha @ Baxter St at the Camera Club of New York

February 9th, 2023 by fstop

Tommy Kha: Ghost Bites
February 08 – March 22, 2023

“Ghost Bites takes as a through-line the image of a shrine, assembling Kha’s photographs depicting his friends, family, and home, as well as the landscape and architecture of the American South where the artist grew up. Also appearing in the Aperture monograph, Kha’s photographs in the show include images of actual shrines he encountered in passing near the entryways of various Asian-American homes and establishments. The artist also offers the shrine as a theoretical metaphor for photography itself, pondering how shrines, like photos, are portals to the past. Similar to the role of a shrine, photography can consecrate, transform, and transport its subjects.

Included in the works on view is a selection of photographs taken by Kha’s mother, as well as photo-sculptures inspired by customized trinkets peddled in gift shops and online. The images are connected to Kha’s own family’s immigration, a journey across North America, ultimately arriving in Tennessee. They also bear a fleeting trace of the Southern Gothic tradition. Kha turns these images into a new form that is both abject self-figuration and wryly grim commentary on America’s too-often-simplified views of complex racial realities.”

Baxter St at the Camera Club of New York · 126 Baxter Street · New York, NY 10013
https://www.baxterst.org/events/ghost-bites/

Location: New York, New York City Type: Exhibition

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