Suture

"Suture...was created by Jeremy Tai Abbett for the sake of the orphaned Vietnamese boy raised in racist America that he was. After spending time abroad in Germany, and also Sweden, he does finally journey to his homeland and come to re-understand it/himself. Using a large variety of technical means, he succeeds in enabling us to differentiate the rhythms and physical feel of daily life today in a Western city, Hamburg, as contrasted with the towns of Vietnam. At the same time this technology itself is interrogated—just one example, the 'Polaroid' frames that bounce across the front-facing children whose stillness draws us. This journey, under the aegis of a flashing, beckoning star that doesn't link, takes time and patience. Its soft questioning of home/touring/imperialism—for example, by means of the Dalat message maker page which allows the reader to send a personalized postcard 'from Vietnam'—goes on against a background of music and voices as each step releases further possible steps into view." -- Stephanie Strickland, "A Reader's Guide"