Copper

200 x 293 x 97 cm

Element #C6.2 is one of 250 pieces that make up We The People, Danh Võ’s 1:1 replica of New York’s Statue of Liberty. By pounding copper sheets over a cast of the statue, Võ remains faithful to the original fabrication techniques and material used in the 19th Century. However, Võ’s segments are never meant to be pieced together, and instead remain at a more human scale, allowing us to contemplate the meaning of liberty from a deconstructed, multidimensional perspective. As this particular segment depicts part of the drapery of the Statue of Liberty’s robe, viewers are invited to ponder the grip that Western politics holds over our current globalised landscape, as well as critique the power struggles underlying representations of feminine identities over the years. In this way, the conceptual similarity between the original statue and Võ’s replica also allows us to focus more on their differences in production and cultural context.