Portland-Based Artist Vo Vo’s New Show Ignites

After working four months with a tapestry company to create a textile for an upcoming show, New Zealand-born Portland-based artist Vo Vo ran into a problem: The company refused to print the design, Shannon Gormley reports for Willamette Week.

The tapestry depicts a stately building with Roman columns alight with squiggly, pastel-coloured flames. On a corner of the blanket is the phrase “Burn it down”.

After months of back-and-forth, the company balked, saying it couldn’t support the “situation there in Portland, Oregon”. It’s a fitting, if ironic, backstory for the artist’s new show, on display until 1 April at Fuller Rosen Gallery.

Despite its controversial subject matter, ‘Things that have to do with fire’ isn’t preachy. It’s warm, discursive and heartfelt, and mainly sewn or woven. And, like Vo themself, it’s full of sly humour, Gormley writes.

Original article by Shannon Gormley, Willamette Week, February 24, 2021.

Photo by Christine Dong.