Memory lives in the familiar, in the sound of rain falling on a weeping willow tree, and in treasured photographs of departed family members. For artist Du Chau, those memories are the foundation of his work.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are the backbones for the whole family,\u201d Chau said.<\/p>\n
Chau is tracing the threads of memory in his first solo exhibition at the Crow Museum of Asian Art in Dallas. Through porcelain sculptures and piano wire installations, he reflects on family, hardship and resilience.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want that memory to be forgotten,\u201d Chau said.<\/p>\n
Many of the pieces are inspired by moments from Chau\u2019s childhood and family history.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you go through life with challenge, you can remember vividly those memory like having enough food on the table,\u201d Chau said.<\/p>\n
Chau brings those memories to life using porcelain and piano wire. One piece, centered on the Lunar New Year, reflects both joy and struggle.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first New Year is to celebrate a memory with mom,\u201d Chau said. \u201cIf you look closely, I use crack as a way to talk about that happiness at the same time as the hardship in life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chau also reflects on the lasting impact of war and survival.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany people have forgotten war is hell,\u201d Chau said. \u201cWhen people say what is heaven and hell, I don\u2019t know. For me right now, heaven is here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chau\u2019s roots are in Vietnam, but art helped him blossom in Dallas.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause art is a universal language, you can watch, you can look and you can just do with your hands,\u201d Chau said.<\/p>\n
Caroline Kim, director of development at the Crow Museum of Asian Art, said Chau\u2019s work connects with audiences because of its deeply personal themes.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of these objects speak from such a personal time in his life and yet they are so relatable to anyone,\u201d Kim said.<\/p>\n
Chau\u2019s work is part of the museum\u2019s Texas Ties series.<\/p>\n
By day, Chau works as a pathologist at a local hospital. By night, he creates art rooted in memory and emotion.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really speaks to the volumes of talent that we have coming out of Texas, and it\u2019s important that we continue to keep nourishing and encouraging that,\u201d Kim said.<\/p>\n
This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC DFW. AI tools helped convert the story into a digital article, and an NBC DFW journalist edited it again before publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Memory lives in the familiar, in the sound of rain falling on a weeping willow tree, and in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":826712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[32],"tags":[323820,648,1032,1596,1033,171,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-826711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-aapi-heritage-month","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-dallas","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116649536213223656","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=826711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/826712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=826711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=826711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=826711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}