Danh Vo

Wood, stone, and metal in the works of Danh Vo (1975) are breathing fragments of history. ‘I don’t really believe in my own story, not as a singular thing anyway. It weaves in and out of other people’s private stories of local history and geopolitical history.’

For more than twenty years, Vo has developed a visual language shaped by experiences of migration and displacement. He explores how power operates in people’s lives: how it seduces, wounds, shapes, and compels adaptation. His installations bring together works marked by war, desire, ambition, and faith. Through these he reveals how power manifests itself in people, materials, and personal narratives. Vo is known for his choreography of objects, images, and texts, as well as for the idiosyncratic way he combines his own work with that of others. In doing so, he explores human relationships in all their vulnerability and the forces that determine how we live, relate to one another, and give meaning to our experiences.

Cover image: Danh Vo, We the People, 2011-2016, courtesy the artist and Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany | photo: Nils Klinger