Ai WeiWei

During my stay in London I attended an exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts showing a body of work by the acclaimed Chinese artist Ai WeiWei. This exhibition gave me any opportunity to step outside the world of picture books and into the world of highly conceptual art. This may influence my project or future works without my own realisation. The exhibition offered a chance to understand, and gain a possible insight into how others work and think. Also reflecting on what my own experience of seeing such works was a very important aspect of this visit. I went with a strategy of trying to understand the works before reading any descriptions on the pieces to see what I got from them without any preconceptions in mind. With some this was difficult after seeing previous interviews etc about the exhibition.

Upon arrival at the RA you are faced with Ai WeiWei's first piece which lies within the external courtyard of the buildings. Trees that have been made from sections of different trees with a single seat in between them. My own initial thoughts on this piece was how striking the trees were in their presence, probably with such dominating thick branches. My views on the thinking were that this was an environmental statement highlighting the fact that trees cannot be manufactured. Trees can only grow naturally and be connected as one not a series of parts constructed together. The work represents China and the chair within is used to represent Beijing as the seat of power in China. The trees are constructed from timbers collected from all areas of China, these show how China is interconnected and pieced together, each area of china is represented within this piece. To me I still believe there is an element of the environment within this work. Ai WeiWei is aware that China is the largest manufacturer in the world, but to what cost on their environment. Each area of China represented may also demonstrate their contribution to the manufacturing as in a section within a tree (or a branch) within of the processes of mass production. The notes taken and images created by myself in response to the work are shown below.

Once inside the RA there are many pieces of work on display as this is a body of work created over many years. One such piece is titled straight and is constructed solely of metal re-bar which is used as the main reinforcement within concrete structures. When first confronted with this sculpture my instincts were that the fault lines within the Earth were what was on display. The room itself also displayed thousands of names in Chinese and a video with photos from an earthquake that devastated many rural towns in China. I had misunderstood the concept, the re-bar was salvaged from the wreckage of schools destroyed in the earthquake. Each twisted piece of steel has been straightened out to it's original state prior to use in constructing the schools. In many areas the schools seemed to suffer far worse consequences that other buildings. This has been put down to corruption leading to the use of inadequate materials to build the schools in the first place. The piece of work is a demonstration against this, especially as the Chinese government was unwilling to release numbers or names of all of those who suffered. The lists on the walls were in recognition of these children who lost their lives, as the names were gathered by travelling through these regions and collecting names and details over a long period of time. This piece seems much clearer to me now on reflection as I write this blog. The steel re-bar used to create the works seemed to comprise of rather small diameter steel. I know from my background in construction that these seems flimsy when I think about how concrete buildings are constructed and the diameter of steel rods used are usually much larger. My notes and photos of this particular work are shown below.

There were many interesting sculptures which included some that were carved from timber that had been joined together by using many different pieces. The joints used in the construction of this work showed real craftsmanship as would have required many months of planning, preparation and execution of this particular work. The concept was rather lost on me without reading the descriptor. Once I read that each sculpture represented mainland China and the islands which are a part of their territory I began to understand what the piece was. Ai WeiWei has taken a map of the land, split it into two pieces, flipped one 180 and joined them together to give the shapes seen. Then constructed these shapes from timbers joined together. I am unsure whether each piece of timber represents a territory within the map as a whole i.e. if the was the UK each timber would be the shape of the county it represents.

Ai WeiWei also creates sculptures from furniture which made me ask myself the question, what is a table? If asked to draw one I would presume to draw a table with four legs resting on a floor, but the photos above show that this doesn't have to be the case. These tables rest upon the walls as much as the floor, are they now seats as much as tables? Has their use changed along with their appearance and construction. The sculpture below actually made me stand in amazement. When I first walked into the room I thought Oh No someone has just stuck a bunch of stools together. But then as I studied the work I realised that they may seem like stools but each they are a series of circular tops with legs that are all interconnected to each other. So they appear as three legged stools but are in fact tops which have only one or two legs attached to each. The thought process, trials, drawings and construction of this sculpture are all of the upmost quality.

Many of the works within this exhibition question mass manufacturing, the value on things and show a heavy emphasis on craftsmanship. These are displayed through the choice of materials Ai WeiWei chooses to work with, the methods in how they are constructed and the messages or thoughts they provoke. The vases that are displayed in one open up many of these questions. One vase has the Coca Cola logo painted over it, others have been dipped in painted, some have been grinned down into dust, photos also show Ai Wei Wei dropping a vase. These vases comprise of ancient vases and some that has been produced recently using the exact same methods and materials used to produce the ancient vases. This puts into question value, why do we place such value on ancient artefacts? Is it the history attached to them? Do we wonder at how many and who's hands they may have passed through in their history? The materials can be of no more value than the newly created vases, does the production of mass market corporation devalue from modern items?

There are many other works that I could discuss but I have stuck to the ones that had the most impact upon me. One such work is titled Fragments and is the last to be discussed. This particular sculpture has been created from timbers collected from old ruined Qing Dynasty palaces and buildings. Many pieces of the timbers show carvings and decoration which leads the imagination to consider how they were previously displayed in very opulent surroundings. The timbers are joined together using traditional Chinese methods including pinning, mortice and tenon and bracings of various types. The piece as a whole looks rather like fingers all interconnected with tables and chairs sewn into the fabric of the sculpture with one single standalone stool. The piece is very intriguing to walk around and look at, understanding the work though can only be done from above. The full piece creates a map of China with the single stool representing Tiawan.

This exhibition may find a way into my work, it may not but I am sure I will always remember the works seen at this event. The reason I wanted to go to this particular exhibition was to expose myself to works, ways of thinking and concepts I had never encountered before. The impact I hope it may have on me is to possibly think much deeper about how I can present things. How can I play with ideas, what is it I want to say? How can I transform one object or image into something else and give it meaning? The thing that has left the biggest impression on me was the sheer quality of the work. I am aware that Ai WeiWei is a conceptual artist and most of the work is actually created by artists and technicians within his studio. However the level of craftsmanship is obviously key to Ai WeiWei and is prevalent in every piece on display. He has a large focus on traditional methods which are being lost to mass production methods. The work was more than fitting to the surroundings of the RA buildings. Each piece is not only high concept which is more than usual very difficult to understand without some explanation, but also produced to the highest quality.