Hosted by visiting artist Tommy Kha, this workshop will explore the complex dynamics of self-imaging and autobiography as material in contemporary art. In Kha’s words,
“Through the framework of the self-portrait, I constantly navigate between self and otherness in my photography. Themes of likeness and representation are at the forefront of my picture making. I shift between comedy and tragedy, familiarity and foreignness, performer and camera operator. … my work is about the self in self-portrait, the portrait in self-portrait, and the hyphen in self-portrait.”
SAAH students from all studio practices are invited work with, and alongside, Kha to question their own approach to lived experience and self-imaging. We encourage you to bring materials (props and/or art work) relevant to your conception of identity, or simply engage with the provided materials at the workshop.
About visiting artist Tommy Kha…
From Kha’s website: “Tommy Kha (b. Memphis, TN) is a photographer currently working between Brooklyn, New York and Memphis, Tennessee. He is a recipient of the Next Step Award, Foam Talent, Creator Labs Photo’ Fund, and most recently named an NYSCA/NYFA Photography Fellow. Kha holds an MFA in Photography from Yale University. He is not garbage.” It is worth adding that Kha’s work has been exhibited extensively including at SFMoMA, the High Museum, and a solo show at Baxter Street NY. His monograph “Half, Full, Quarter” was published by Aperture in 2023.
Kha is a dynamic speaker and artist whose ongoing photography practice incorporates aspects of performance, and community engagement in particular The Chain Letter Project, “an attempt to catalog an AAPI collective memory.” (Note: AAPI stands for Asian American and Pacific Islander)
Drawing from his personal experience as a queer Asian American living in the American South, “Kha examines how we construct belonging and otherness through photography, inventing new models for self-portraiture with a critical eye toward the medium’s long history of absences and erasure.” (Art21)
Image credit: from I’m Only Here to Leave by Tommy Kha