Kênh Tàu Hủ No.1

• Artist: Sto Len
• Medium: Pollution and natural debris on archival paper
• Size: 131 cm x 103 cm 

Sto Len isn’t so much a magician as he is alchemist, revealing swirling gestures from the surface of New York’s most polluted waters, from the edge of a rowboat. The prints are pulled from the surface of Newtown Creek and Corona Park through an original process he calls tsunaminagashi — a mix of traditional suminagashi and his own techniques. Something so immediate and arresting could be rendered from an alarming human imposition on nature is how Sto Len draws attention to environmental crises through his creations. “I see it acting as a way to create dialogue around how we treat our water and what we’re doing to the environment in general.” Based in Brooklyn, New York with familial roots in Vietnam, Sto Len’s work incorporates these bonds by connecting issues of both their history, environment, traditions and politics.