Anh Vo: Punish, Perform, Possess unfolds as an extended performance bringing time and space to a point of crisis. Foregrounding acts of worship and possessive rituals, Anh Vo frames punishment as a ritualized behavior witnessed by the self, the community, or the state. In specific political systems, punishment operates as a regulated, codified assertion of power. As such, it becomes a site where systemic forces are internalized and reproduced. The exhibition explores how these dynamics shape relationships between individuals and their bodies, citizens and the state, and among those bound together through acts of discipline and endurance.
This exhibition focuses on how language functions as a mechanism of discipline. Drawing boundaries around what can and cannot be expressed, language often collapses under the weight of what it seeks to contain. By disrupting established forms of language, Vo examines how power is mediated and reimagined across both intimate and collective dimensions.
Comprising sculpture, sound, video, and text, the exhibition accumulates new traces each day whether through material changes or interactions with the artist, performers, and visitors. Ritualistic chants, inducing possessive states, resonate throughout the space, amplified by megaphones. Sound both disorients as it directs. Projected captions of gibberish appear to clarify while simultaneously fracturing meaning. Melting ice reveals while obscuring. Chalk writings are erased by footsteps, leaving behind powdery traces. Delicate helmet sculptures, crafted from rice paper and eggshells, hover between fragility and resilience. The gallery becomes a living, breathing environment continuously reshaped by repetition, dancing, material transformation, and the act of gathering.
The unstable nature of the exhibition emphasizes the contradictions inherent in language, a fixed form that continually fails to convey the fluidity of memory and feeling, which are often untranslatable. Delving into the violence of translation, Vo embraces failure and asks what else might emerge in its aftermath, even beyond the limits of the corporeal. This opens up a space for reimagining how we relate to ourselves and to others beyond language and the body.
The exhibition is accompanied by a series of possessive performances both in the gallery and outdoors. Each performance takes on the structure of a ritual, with the artist offering their body as a site of ceremony.
9/12 Untitled (Break Fast) at the Opening Reception
10/4 Possessed by...
12/5 Untitled
Across all gestures, punishment is extended into broader forms of violence, those enacted through regulation, censorship, and collective conditioning. Anh Vo: Punish, Perform, Possess becomes both method and metaphor for endurance, survival, and a visceral embodiment of the power structures that shape us. In doing so, the work gestures toward how individuals make sense of their place in the world.
This exhibition is curated by Joyce Chung with assistance from Cole Roberts. Exhibition Design and Production by Kyle b. Co. Sound Design and Recording Engineering by Isaac Silber. Recording: Vocals by Anh Vo, Kristel Baldoz, Justin Cabrillos; Strings by Jessica Pavone, gabby fluke-mogul, Ethan Philbrick. Installation by Matthew Belknap. Poster design by Eileen Trần and Tim Lê.
This exhibition is funded by William Penn Foundation, Ford Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and the National Performance Network
