danh vo's chicxulub solo show at white cube is literally being dismantled and burned

vietname-danish artist, danh vo, has transformed london’s white cube gallery with an installation titled chicxulub. featuring an exquisite assemblage of objects, the show — which has been inspired by political and historical events, particularly the fall of empires and religion — juxtaposes readymade objects in different contexts to challenge the way we think about them.

images © danh vo/ white cube/ ollie hammick

following the COVID-19 social distancing measurements, danh vo moved to his farm in east germany, where he developed the exhibition and was able to bring together many themes he explores in his work — the seduction and violence of catholicism; the parallels between the export of christianity and the contemporary travel of multinational brands; and the interconnected nature of life on this globe where each thing is shaped by the reflection of its inside to an outside.

the chicxulub exhibition by danh vo has been titled after a crater buried underneath the yucatán peninsula in mexico caused by an asteroid — the one that probably wiped down the dinosaurs. a timeline, which visitors could download, charted the collapse of 22 empires: from the fall of persepolis, to the execution of atahualpa, to the dropping of atomic bombs in hiroshima and nagasaki. this chart brings the exhibition to our current times, where a wall with the US flag made of tree trunks is slowly dismantled and burned, piece by piece, until the closure of the show — the day of the us elections.

throughout the exhibition space, the low light guides visitors through stained-glass windows and religious statues. plant gardens with remains of banal packaging together with coca-cola logos painted with gold leaf elevate this objects while creating parallels to the history of horticulture.

‘vo’s pastoral exhibition appeals to a basic human desire to escape or perhaps retreat,’ comments the white cube release. ‘this is the garden of eden after the coming of knowledge, way after. mutated, humorous, and uncanny it seems that history and biology have intertwined and created new forms. as such the exhibition smacks of nostalgia, a pastoral longing for creation itself, but also of self-aware presentness, an ability to plant and create optimistically, searching out new forms for us to test.’