Existing comment:
Liliana Porter
born Buenos Aires, Argentina 1941
Untitled (The New York Times, Sunday, September 13, 1970)
1970
Screenprint
Collection of Leah and Andrew Witkin, Brookline, MA
Images of unidentified Vietnamese people appeared frequently in American news coverage of the Vietnam War, and were often adopted in antiwar art as symbols of wartime suffering. Porter's print is unusual in calling attention to the humanity elided in such a photograph. Here she appropriates a picture taken by photojournalist John Schneider. It depicts a woman detained by U.S. and South Vietnamese forces on suspicion of communist affiliation. Porter's text first introduces the woman from afar, stressing her difference as a "northvietnamese." Her words ultimately guide the viewer to empathy and identification, equating the captive woman with "my mother, my sister, you, I. |