Blog # 92…
April 2019
China has
been much on our minds lately and not in a particularly good way – Huawei, political
prisoners caught in the middle of trade wars, canola - seemed a good time for
seeing an Ai WeiWei show and tuning in to his sense and sensibility.
The Gardiner
Museum continues its creative programming with Unbroken, running until June 9, a small and delicious sample of artist/activist
Ai’s work using ceramics as his medium.
Ai flashed
across the art world a few years ago when he purposely dropped a Han dynasty vase,
(there’s a photo of him doing this) smashing it as a symbol of how he wanted to
smash conventions and up-end cultural conventions and materials in his native
China. It also references the destruction of many art works during the Cultural
Revolution. Obviously, this, along with other acts of rebellion against
tradition angered many people, in China particularly. Ai was imprisoned and now lives in exile in
Berlin.
The
centerpiece of the show is a tall pillar composed of six large blue and white
vases. On first glance, they look like conventional designs, but closer up, the images emerge as scenes of lines of refugees marching across desolate
landscapes or camps of tents and children playing in the dust. Using the
familiar colours and shape leads us to expect one thing and be shocked by what
we see, more effective than columns of print.
The famous
sunflower seeds, each created individually by a pair of hands, appear again
(they were in the Tate modern a few years ago and at the AGO too). This time, they form a pyramid against a
background of a series of large Lego panels featuring digitized images of the
animals of the Chinese zodiac.
Most of the
objets in the show speak in ways both whimsical and serious to boundaries, both
real and symbolic, social justice abuses, freedom of speech, and repression of
dissent. Two delicately crafted pairs of handcuffs, one in rosewood, the other
jade remind us that Ai has direct experience with repression. He’s paid the price for expressing his ideas,
both with time in prison and being forced to live away from his homeland.
I enjoyed this show with Marian Kenny, a dear friend who died a few days later. This is for her.
I enjoyed this show with Marian Kenny, a dear friend who died a few days later. This is for her.
