Ai Weiwei Exhibition

Tree Sculptures

These tree sculptures are placed right in the courtyard of the entrance of Burlington House, Royal Academy of Art before the entrance of the building into the exhibition. The sculptures reminded me of the scary forests in Snow White but they also have a peaceful look to them. If you look closer to them, they actually have quite smooth edges. 

Marble grass and baby pram.

Surveillance Camera in Marble.

This is one of the wall paper at the exhibition, which reflects on how the government monitor social media/ internet in China.

'F**k the Government' wallpaper. Middle finger graphic created into 'Romantic' motifs.

Wooden benches made into a sculpture.

Wooden benches made into a sculpture.

In this piece of work, the glass jars are filled with dust that was crushed from antiques pottery and normal ones. Wei wei tries to make the point that from dust we come, and dust we return. 

Many times it is the story behind how the artwork is made or the intention instead of the final product. This artwork (images above and below) consists of more than thousands of metal bar that was used for construction buildings. Wei wei acquired these metal bars from Sichuan, a province that suffered a tragic earthquake that killed many in China. Because the earthquake happened in the daytime when many students are at school, many children and adolescents were killed from collapses of their schools. Many has speculated that the reasons the buildings in that province collapsed were because of poor infrastructures and there may be corruption in between building time, where government officers may have pocketed some of the money. Despite not having enough evidence, Ai weiwei was determined to find out the amount of students that were killed through this incident. The metal bars seen in the photograph were actually crooked before but AIweiwei and his team straightened the metal bars out into its original forms, before it was used for construction to make a political statement about the government and perhaps its corruptions. In this room, the walls are filled with names and age of the students that were killed from this earth disaster.

Bicycle Chandelier

Being questioned

Because Ai Weiwei's artwork is very political and directly criticising the Chinese government, there are times when he was locked up and questioned. The images here are sculptures that he made to document his experience.  

Being watched 24/7, even when sleeping.

Being watched even when going to the toilet.

Me being too excited to see this master's work

Check out my instagram for more personal uploads.  @iamesthermok