Flawless Perfection: A Junior Self-Portrait Diptych by Thuy-Tien Le (2013)

In my diptych, I wanted to explore an idea that I briefly brought up in my poem. A small portion of my poem brings up the topic of perfection, an idea that I think is relatable to everyone, but still rather personal because I believe that perfection is in the eye of the beholder. How I view perfection will symbolize how I see the world. After a discussion in class, I came up with the oxymoron, ''flawed perfection'', to get a sense of what I wanted to photograph for the two images that would juxtapose in my diptych. For my first photo, I wanted to portray the ''flawed'' portion of my oxymoron so I took a picture of a pair of glasses. To me, glasses represent a flaw because my vision is nowhere close to perfect and I have to wear prescription glasses to see correctly.

For my second photo, which is meant to represent the ''perfection'' part of my oxymoron, I photographed my violin. For a long time in my life, I had to learn how to play the violin because my parents wanted me to know how to play an instrument. I quickly learned that violins aren’t just instruments that can be picked up and played immediately without prior knowledge, unlike the piano. In order to play a violin, you needed to be trained on how to finger notes, pull the bow across the strings, and hold the instrument correctly. Once all of this is mastered, then you can play the instrument successfully with discipline and practice.

The two images come together to represent a ''flawed perfection'' because to my point of view, I don’t think it is possible for something to be genuinely perfect. There is something, no matter how small it is, that creates a flaw in something that is seemingly perfect. The glasses and the violin overall represent the potential of perfection, but not quite reaching that point. For example, if someone doesn’t need glasses, then she has perfect vision, but it is very easy for her vision to be messed up one day, causing her to need glasses. The same idea goes for the violin. Someone has the potential to play a piece perfectly, yet since there is no perfection, there will always be a small flaw in their playing, whether it is fingering a note slightly flat or bowing at the wrong angle.