Summary

Tommy Kha: Eye is Another is a site-specific installation in the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art’s rotunda. Activating the rotunda’s floor, walls, and dome, Tommy Kha’s photography-based installation explores themes of identity, (in)visibility, and sense of place. The dome features a photo-mosaic of an eye, a literal oculus, composed of images of the sky from the two cities where Kha splits his time: Memphis and New York. The work is based on Kha’s own left eye, and its blue color is borrowed from Elvis. Below are photographs of the Southern landscape that consider the relationship between self and place, and on the floor is a blanket that explores the connections between identity, memory, and family. Visitors may lie down to “sky gaze” and contemplate on the grassy lawn.