Log Dog

2013
Danh Vo

59 Wooden trunks and branches (3 of which with sculpted inserts), 4 log dog and chains, 6 wood carving sculptures, 1 group of particles of wood with a gilded cardboard box

Variable dimensions

A pile of tree branches gathered in the streets around the artist Danh Vo’s house in Mexico City is intertwined with metal tools used in American logging. They give the work its name, Log Dog. Closer examination reveals the tiny face of a cherub on a branch and sections of a 17th century oak Christ. This composite, intriguing work questions the construction of cultural values and their displacement.

Danh Vo carefully selects everyday objects and historical artefacts for his works. In unexpected and aesthetic combinations, he questions their historical and symbolic value and upsets their conventional image. The cut, gathered and combined parts of Log Dog reveal the complexity of exchanges between peoples in an unlikely union.

Danh Vo's installation Log Dog was first shown by the Pinault Collection in 2015 at the "Slip of the Tongue" exhibition at the Punta della Dogana.

Exhibitions
Danh Vo © Adagp, Paris. Photo © Fulvio Orsenigo
Exhibiton view, Slip of the Tongue, curators Danh Vo & Caroline Bourgeois, Fondation François Pinault, Punta della Dogana, Venice, Italy, April 12 2015 - January 10 2016.
Danh Vo © Adagp, Paris. Courtesy of the artist and kurimanzutto, Mexico City Photograph: Estudio Michel Zabé, 2013.
Danh Vo © Adagp, Paris. Courtesy of the artist and kurimanzutto, Mexico City Photograph: Estudio Michel Zabé, 2013.
Danh Vo © Adagp, Paris. Photo © Fulvio Orsenigo
Exhibiton view, Slip of the Tongue, curators Danh Vo & Caroline Bourgeois, Fondation François Pinault, Punta della Dogana, Venice, Italy, April 12 2015 - January 10 2016.
Danh Vo © Adagp, Paris. Photo © Fulvio Orsenigo
Exhibiton view, Slip of the Tongue, curators Danh Vo & Caroline Bourgeois, Fondation François Pinault, Punta della Dogana, Venice, Italy, April 12 2015 - January 10 2016.
Danh Vo's other artwork