Sometimes I’m able to drag myself out of my cave to engage with other humans, especially those who are brave enough to share their art. When I do, I write about it.
I’m not much of a comic or graphic novel reader. I don’t exactly know what I’m supposed to do with it. On a lark, I decided to try to expand my experience with an evening screening of Matt Huynh’s “Cabramatta”, an interactive comic book. The piece was shown on the big-ish screen at Art Square Theatre (formerly Cockroach Theatre), hosted by the Black Mountain Institute and Believer Magazine.
“Cabramatta”, a suburb in south-western Sydney, follows the story of author Matt Huynh and his family’s immigration from Vietnam after the war to Australia. We’re brought straight into the living room of the Huynh family where they cower and hide from the outside world. They’re not in any particular danger, but they are now navigating a new country, knowing no one, and a new culture with no support from the host government. Through Huynh’s eyes, we see the ways the Australian government and its people isolated, demeaned, and ghettoized Vietnamese immigrants, and how those policies begot Cabramatta’s heroin epidemic. As much as this is a personal story, it is a warning, or should serve as one anyway, to the Australian government about how its xenophobic policies and attitudes can lead to tragedy.
The comic feels more like a game, the kind of point-and-click adventure you can spend hours trying to unravel hunting for clues. It’s not an animation, but there are cinematic elements that fill in the user’s experience through each panel. With sound design by Kevin Shea, you’re enveloped by the sounds of Sydney trains, the bustle of the suburb, and the racist rants of Aussie politicians. Some panels feature looping animation in emotional and heightened scenes like the violence on “the other side of tracks” or the rocking of a fishing boat as it sails to Australia’s shores.
I’m
not an art aficionado. I know enough to notice details and differences,
but it’s not like I can decode an artist’s meaning through their
brushstroke. However, Huynh talked about his drawing style in a way many of us cubicle monsters can relate: repetitive stress injuries. After abandoning law school, Huynh took a commercial art job doing advertisements. During
that time he developed severe RSI in his wrist, elbow, and shoulder
which forced him to evaluate what it is he really wanted to do with his
art. He stumbled onto a zen school and calligraphy classes that helped him draw with less harm on his body and informed his style. It’s really apparent in the fluidity of his lines. There’s rarely a straight, even line in his work. There
are dips, bends and curls in every stroke. While calligraphy is
associated with calm and relaxation, Huynh uses his innovative style to
become more frenetic and chaotic the more the story unfolds.
Huynh has been detailing the Vietnamese post-war experience through his art for the last 10 years. I encourage you to watch his other animated comic, “The Boat.”
Until my next outing!