Harrell Fletcher's 'The American War' re-presents Vietnam War Remnants Museum at LAXART

Harrell Fletcher's exhibition 'The American War' at LAXART in Los Angeles from January 20 to February 28, 2007, re-presents the War Remnants Museum of Ho Chi Minh City through re-photographed images. Using a digital point-and-shoot camera, Fletcher captured every picture and text label from the Vietnamese museum, framing them in lightly stained wood against pastel blue walls that mimic the original institution. This bootlegged recreation brings Vietnam War atrocities committed by American forces to a U.S. audience, creating what Arthur Ou describes as cultural souvenirism with procedural technicalities revealing more than altruistic intentions. The installation evokes clandestine film bootlegs through its handmade aesthetic, complete with camera glares and skewed angles that document the artist's physical presence as guide. Walter Benjamin's observation about disappearing historical images resonates with Fletcher's project, which reactivates Vietnam War photographs in the context of contemporary U.S. foreign policy in Iraq. Susan Sontag's paradoxical view of war photography as irresistible news contrasts with Roger Fenton's 1855 Crimean War propagandistic images that avoided negative portrayals of British involvement. Fletcher's work occupies a precarious balance between subdued authorship and guileful subjectivity, transforming anonymous smuggling into recognized artistic practice while confronting American historical amnesia about Vietnam.