Kenson Truong

My current studio practice explores visual devices of camouflage using text, light, and sculptural installation. It is an investigation of the emotional turmoil I struggle with in finding belonging due to my intersectional identity of being both homosexual and Asian. My experiences through young adulthood have been contrary to regular belief, finding more solace in the heteronormative male community than the homonormative due to racism, discrimination, and stereotyping from within gay culture itself. I often feel the inability to express these struggles, shutting down from anxiety and depression; it is seemingly simpler to not share at all, but conceal. Therefore, text and imagery of trauma are hidden visually within grids, sculptural-light installations, or disguised with literary devices such as double entendre and word puzzles. For me, that trauma would be the realization that being a homosexual is not only a battle with heteronormativity or homonormativity, but also a battle with a developed internalized homophobic self-hatred from hiding in heteronormativity for so long.