âm sắc ấm is how a child would spell out “warmth” in Vietnamese (ấm) and in this journey they enunciate “âm” (meaning negative/dead) and “sắc” (meaning beauty). on a parallel plane of meaning, “âm” and “sắc” as a pair singly anchors the Việt language.

this series journals in photographs the imperfectly beautiful languages of being my family invented (not out of creative needs but out of necessity) to cope with the passing of my grandmother, the single anchor in the family. through each piece, the audience will face a little bit of “âm” and a lot more “sắc,” but mostly “ấm.”

ấm also means “kettle,” which a one-year-old me would obsess over and would cry to death if i didn’t get to see while being fed. ask my grandma.