This January we spent three weeks in the Mekong Delta region of Southern Vietnam. With support from the Harvard Asia Center, we went to make multi‐scalar studies by drawing the productive landscapes of the Delta, too often represented in measures of rice and shrimp. Our investigations looked for the faint but definite relationships excluded from sociopolitical and economic conversations in the region. We went to see the Delta beyond what it produces; to generate an experience of Delta space, haptic and phenomenological. While traveling, we borrowed a working title from Rebecca Solnit, the blue of distance, a phrase that refers to things lost over space, through time. Because of the short wavelength of blue light, faraway things take on its hue. We wanted to operate with that yearning, without trying to close the gap, while maintaining legible and useful arguments through drawing. Returning home, we found in our materials the strength of the diptych and a loose interrelationship between image, memory, document, and text. stereoscope is how we continue to move through this space. It is an exercise in observation and patience. It presents the development of a structure for working with others and for trying to think through their space.
Eunice Wong & Dana Kash