TIEN
A victim of agent orange
Tien, I'm looking at you.
Crouched, my back against the wall, you are in front of me in the silence of this room. Lying on your mat, your eyes follow the flight of a fly, is it your only distraction?
Is it looking at you too?
Who's watching you, Tien?
Your existence is due to the mechanics of the body. From the inside it works, heart, lung, liver, your vital organs keep working. From the outside, your body crushed by dioxin doesn’t respond. You crawl without words on this mat two by two metres.
Your space, your prison. Tien, I'm looking at you. Your eyes are on me. What do you want to tell?
How to talk about you, Tien? How to tell? How to tell the inconceivable?
I'm photographing you.
I'm looking at you Tien and the words, dioxin, orange poison, death, disability, genetic disorder, weed killer, Monsanto, suffering, madness, are looping in my head again and again.
Killer yesterday, killer today. Tien, victim of 3rd generation. Tien, who are they to put you in prison for your whole life? You and the thousand others, the hundred thousand others, victims of Agent Orange, victims of yesterday, today and tomorrow.
You and the thousand others, the hundred thousand others, victims of weed killers needed for the production of transgenic corn and soy, today and tomorrow.
Madness.