In 2005 Harrell Fletcher spent a month in Vietnam as part of an international artists retreat.
While there Fletcher spent a lot of time at The War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, a memorial museum for what is referred to in Vietnam as The American War. The Museum used to be called The Museum of American War Crimes, then it was The War Crimes Museum then we got friendly with Vietnam again and it was renamed The War Remnants Museum.
He says “I was so affected by what I saw at the museum that I went back several times and eventually re-photographed all of the images and text descriptions from the main museum.”
The American War is the result of that experience.
The billboard project was undertaken by LAXART as part of their Public Art Initiatives series. The billboard was located a La Cienega Boulevard between Venice and Washington Boulevard facing north.
J&L Books published a book on the project.
Review of the LAXART show by Arthur Oh at Afterall
Thanks to VVork for the lead