Danh Vo takes on US independence with Mexican brands and gruesome tools

The Vietnamese artist Danh Vo has unveiled a major new work, Untitled (2017), at the Aishti Foundation in Beirut that taps into the fraught political climate in the US today. The installation is made of 27 cardboard US flags coated in gold leaf and suspended from the ceiling. Each flag depicts 13 stars, representing the 13 British colonies that declared independence in 1776 leading to the birth of the United States of America. Motifs for Mexican beer brands are emblazoned on the reverse.I was r