I visited the Hirshhorn Museum in
DC to see the new exhibition of Ai Weiwei’s work, which was a revelation for me
as I usually have a skeptical distance from conceptual art. Ai’s work alludes to the distant artistic
past, embraces Duchamp, nods to Jasper Johns, and mimes Minimalism, yet is also
firmly set in the present. The work is beautiful, moving even, but without
letting us forget the compromised world we live in.
What attracts me in particular is
his engagement with the transformation of contemporary China. His ready-made
sculpture comprising old bicycles, temple wood and reclaimed furniture references
the ransacking of the past in the making of the present. He sprays Coca-Cola
logos on Neolithic vases and dips Han dynasty vases in bright modern colors. There
are also his more urban-inspired works.
Provisional Landscapes is a series
of photos of the liminal spaces between demolition and construction that marks
the Chinese urban scene. There are
the many photographs documenting the building of the Bird’s Nest 2008 Olympic stadium.
Chang’an Boulevard is a 10-hour video--I
did not see it all--shot every 50 meters along the 45-kilometer route. It
provides a visual east-west transect from Beijing’s outer suburbs through the central
city and out the other side. The Second Ring
is a one-hour video of traffic along the second-ring motorway that encircles
Beijing. Both videos provide the urban geographer in me with a visual handle on
urban transformation.
There are the spatial works that quote
maps and boundaries. Map of China is
a five-foot high solid map of China made from recycled ironwood. Fragments is an installation of antique
furniture and pillars from temples that he shapes to make a giant map of China.
There are the political works. Brain Inflation is two blown-up images
of his brain scan taken after his beating from security police. He responds to
the Sichuan earthquake of 2008, not only in photographs and through the names
of the victims printed on an entire wall text but also in two other compelling
pieces. A traditional Chinese serpent, which on closer inspection is made up of
hundreds of school kids’ backpacks, coils and winds its way around the exhibition
space’s ceilings; it is a requiem for the many children killed when their
shoddily built school buildings collapsed. Wenchuan
Steel Rebar is a deceptively Minimalist floor piece consisting of 40 tons
of rebar steel reclaimed from the wreckages of the earthquake. A large ‘crack’ in its steel surface as
it undulates across the floor recalls a quake’s rolls and fractures.
Ai Weiwei’s work is political but
transcends glib agitprop. It was a
memorable experience to see how he wrestles with making aesthetic sense of the
transforming world around him.
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| Map of China |
