February 4 – 9
Location: Art Lofts Gallery, 111 N Frances St, Madison, WI
Reception: Saturday, February 7, 6-8pm
Daniella Thach is a Cambodian-American artist whose works collapse a violent past and volatile present to envision possible futures. They trace this history and the diasporic impact on their family to form a new, amalgamous identity. In combining new and obsolete technologies, Thach melds timelines across past and familial memory to imagine life and identity after genocide, assimilation, and the loss of heritage.
Often spawned in darkened installations, Thach’s interdisciplinary work coalesces neon, video, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, and ephemera to conjure spiritual visages. The iconography of Cambodia becomes an anchor within a visual language that Thach can speak fluently, making up for the mother tongue they did not inherit. They long to understand the karaoke sung by their grandmother or to follow the steps of a dance no longer performed. Thach mirrors these traditions passed down from parent to child through craft techniques often passed from master to apprentice, echoing the ways in which we preserve culture.
While unearthing unspoken family memories of life during genocide, Thach hopes to shed light on the forgotten history as 2025 marks the 50th year since the Khmer Rouge systemically persecuted and killed 1.5 to 2 million Cambodian people. Bringing forth this history is especially pertinent as we witness the current genocide within Palestine.
Thach has exhibited works across America such as the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington, The Minnesota Museum of American Art in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Zhou B Art Center in Chicago, Illinois. They were an emerging artist in residence at Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, Washington and Chautauqua School of Visual Arts, Chautauqua, New York. Their artwork has been featured in publications including New Glass Review, Sixty Inches From Center, and The Oxford Blue.