‘We The People’ (2011-2013) by Danh Vo.
A full scale replica of the Statue of Liberty in New York, built in a workshop in Shanghai. The statue has not been welded together, but has been split into approximately 400 fragments that have been scattered across the entire world.
‘I M U U R 2’ (2012) by Danh Vo.
Vo has long been fascinated by the life and work of Martin Wong, a visionary painter and beloved figure of New York’s downtown art scene of the 1980s and ’90s. After acquiring one of Wong’s works, he struck up a correspondence with the artist’s mother, Florence Wong Fie, and eventually visited her home in San Francisco. There, he discovered a remarkable collection of objects ranging from curios and tourist souvenirs to rare antique ceramics and scrolls of calligraphy, interspersed with numerous examples of Wong’s paintings and works on paper.
The on-going project “Vo Rocasco Rasmussen” that began in 2003, was one of Danh Võ’s first forays in the systematic subversion of hegemonic cultural structures. Legally marrying and adopting the names of one close friend after another, this on-going work could be seen as a tribute to loyalty and love, but his subsequent accumulation of names over time calls into question the role a name plays in our understanding of identity. His passport, for example, does not read the same as his bank-card, and the name on his driver’s license is different from his door bell.
Danh Vo, ‘Oma Totem’ (2009)
Totem of objects that Vo’s grandmother, Nguyen Thi Ty, received from The Immigrant Relief Program and The Catholic Church upon arriving in Denmark as a refugee: – 1 Phillips 26 inch TV – 1 Gorenje washing machine – 1 Bomann refrigerator – 1 wooden crucifix – 1 personalized entrance card for a casino
