Vestigial Structure
Born in Vietnam, but now a resident of New York, Duy Hoàng’s experience as an immigrant has left its mark on him. His Vestigial Structure series diverts the ‘camera function’ of the Google Translate app, which allows you to photograph a text and get an instant translation. By gently turning his smartphone camera towards the lake, mountains or trees, he reveals words hidden in our natural environment and invisible to the naked eye. In fact, the app interprets the shapes of branches or those drawn by the movement of water as Asian ideograms, and therefore sees them as words. The app’s automatic translation into English generates random words that appear to be in perfect harmony with their surroundings. This series is making its debut at the Biennale Images Vevey and is displayed near to where it was created during the artist’s residency in La Becque.
