american

doomska

mono moral

MONO MORAL

Vincent Tran’s Mono Moral, a jab at American culture, tackles the spectrums of religion, ethics, man, and politics wrapped in Sam’s red, white, and blue. Through a Viet-American lens, Tran explores the world and people around him, from pawn shops lined with double-barrels to churches lined with the morally gray. Incorporating magnifying, stacking, and slicing techniques, these images portray man's eternal burden of establishing dogma, a one true index of righteousness,

a mono moral.

CON.

Having to fill multiple "shoes" and roles as an immigrant child, I pose as different personas. I used shoes, clothes, a backdrop, and lights. I dressed and posed for images. I then combined them all together and added borders and overlaps.

THE INTERPRETATOR

A Viet-American boy, burdened with parental errands, dawns a cowl, becoming a bridge between worlds. I used yard gloves, school supplies, a digital camera, and a hand-sewn denim cowl from scratch. I took pictures of myself in different poses, cut them out in Photoshop, and stacked them together.

PROOF

After receiving a letter from my estranged dad, I dissect the alien message looking for closure. I used a letter from my dad, Desmos, a braille translator, and Photoshop. I converted the words from a letter from my dad into shapes and cut out parts of my dad's portrait.

STRAW MAN

Using a macro-lens that I made with a belt, magnifying glass, tube, and necktie, I took a zoomed in picture of my fist using a makeshift macro-lens, printed, and scanned the image.

XOR

Using a film camera, film, an enlarger, and a scanner, I flipped and stacked film negatives together, printed the image, then scanned the print.

GRAY MAN

Using a film camera, film, and an enlarger, I stacked my film negatives together, printed the image, and scanned the print.

HIRO

Using action figures, an alarm clock, a bookshelf, a digital camera, and Photoshop, I stacked posed action figures, alarm clock displays, and masked adjustments on top of a bookshelf.

PINKY BLUE USA

Using a digital camera, a film camera, film, a scanner, and Photoshop, I scanned a film negative, overlapped sections of a digital image, and tweaked the colors.

ROCKET MAN

Using beet juice, a scanner, a digital camera, and Photoshop, I stacked a beet juice anthotype planet, real stars, and a rocket made of roadside electrical boxes.

YUPPIE

Using a digital camera and Photoshop, I took pictures at the mall and stacked the images together to create a surreal capitalistic strip.

SKEWED BARRELS

Using a thermal printer, a paper base, and a scanner, I printed a picture using a thermal printer, cut and stuck the parts on a base, and scanned it.

MAGNA

Using a digital camera and Photoshop, I cut out the subjects from Houston landmarks and roadside images and collaged them together.

STEAK

I used a digital camera. I cut out sections of an image and stacked bitmap versions of the image on top.

THEY LIVE

I used an anatomical model, glasses, and clothes. I dressed up an anatomical model and used outdoor lighting for a contrasted cast lighting.

INVESTIGATION

Over the course of the year, I focused on themes of identity and what it meant to be Vietnamese on Houstonian land. Childish, critical, comical, and convoluted, I confront society and myself by prodding at the spectrums of religion, ethics, and politics. Through a Viet‑American lens, I explored the world around me, from pawn shops lined with double‑barrels to churches lined with the morally gray, trying to understand what the “right” way of being was. I wanted to see whether man had a dogma, a single index of righteousness and belonging, and whether there was any room for me within it.

PROGRESSION

I first tried exploring what being American meant, but the work felt shallow and caricatured. Then I turned to my Asian identity, yet it still felt distant and disconnected from who I’ve grown into. I realized I could never fully be either no matter how hard I tried, so I began searching for myself as an Asian American, a cultural hybrid. Through magnifying, stacking, splicing, and collaging techniques, I use action figures, spaceships, cows, encrypted polygons, shoes, churches, and Houston highways to express my experience in America and the identity I’ve finally come to claim as my own.

THANK YOU! * THANK YOU! * THANK YOU! * THANK YOU! * THANK YOU! * THANK YOU! * THANK YOU!

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