Take My Breath Away 2017

Danh Vō’s installation, “Take My Breath Away,” features a disassembled 19th-century chandelier. In the 19th century, chandeliers like this one symbolized wealth and power, hanging in the palaces of European monarchs and the homes of the upper classes. But this particular chandelier once hung in the Hotel Majestic in Paris, where the Paris Peace Accords were signed in 1973, ending the Vietnam War. Vō, whose family fled Vietnam when he was a child, reconfigures this object to encourage us to reflect on this history. The title of the work, "Take My Breath Away," suggests both the beauty of the chandelier and the trauma of war and displacement. As an art historian, I might research the history of the Vietnam War, the Paris Peace Accords, and the Hotel Majestic. We can consider the social and political context in which the chandelier was made and used, and how its meaning has changed over time.