Voice of Fire with striped T-shirts and ties that mimicked the painting. The 1996 book "Voices of Fire: Art Rage, Power, and the State", edited by Bruce Barber, Serge Guilbaut and John O'Brian, discusses the issues around the purchase of the painting. Commissioned for Expo 67, the International and Universal Exposition that took place in Montreal during Canada's 1967 centennial, "Voice of Fire" was part of the US pavilion organized by art critic and historian Alan Solomon. The exhibition, "American Painting Now" featured the work of twenty-two artists installed in the US Pavilion, a geodesic dome designed by engineer Buckminster Fuller. Explicitly oriented
Geodesic dome A 30-foot wood and plastic geodesic dome was lifted and carried by helicopter at 50 knots without damage, leading to the manufacture of a standard magnesium dome by Magnesium Products of Milwaukee. Tests included assembly practices in which previously untrained Marines were able to assemble a 30-foot magnesium dome in 135 minutes, helicopter lifts off aircraft carriers, and a durability test in which an anchored dome successfully withstood without damage, a day-long propeller blast from the twin 3,000 horsepower engines of an anchored airplane. The dome was introduced to a wider audience as a pavilion for the 1964 World's Fair