SAM VAN VO

Dead Culture in Liminal Spaces explores personal identity tied with the concept of genetic memory and dreams. Through these foundational concepts, I investigate the complexity of an Asian American identity in the present and future with consideration of the challenges of being a racial minority. In practice, my work reinterprets historical and cultural symbols intrinsically tied to my cross-cultural experience as a Laotian and Vietnamese American. By using non-traditional media such as 3D modeling, video, and animation, I actively distance these influences from their historical or cultural contexts and reimagine them as both existent and non-existent as part of my cultural self. While I feel tied to the rich cultural heritage that I pull influence from, I often ask how sincere my own sense of identity, peace, and anxieties are tied to them as time moves ever onward. Through this work, I explore the questions of “what is left, what is it now, and what can it (or I) become?” As time erodes these forms or “memories” of my own cultural self, I investigate a bleak past, an uncertain future, and the universal search for self-identity and belonging.