Image:Ai Weiwei Moon Chest 2008 Huanghuali wood 81 pieces, 320 x 160 x 80 cm Credit Mori Art Museum
Courtesy the artist
13 May – 16 July 2011
Ai Weiwei will present a show of sculptural and video works at Lisson Gallery. This will be a chance to view a number of key works by the artist, one of the most significant cultural figures of his generation, both in China and internationally.
Ai Weiwei successfully occupies multiple roles as a conceptual artist, architect,
curator, designer, film-maker, publisher, and social and cultural critic. Following on from his landmark Unilever series commission Sunflower Seeds at Tate Modern, the show will be his first at Lisson Gallery and will be held
across both Bell Street spaces.
Image:Ai Weiwei Monumental Junkyard 2007 Marble 40 pieces each 6 x 213 x 91 cm, 20 pieces each 6 x 210 x 80cm Credit Glucksman Gallery Courtesy the artist
Greg Hilty of Lisson Gallery says: “We are thrilled at the opportunity to bring to a UK public a selection of key works that demonstrate the range and sensibility of Ai Weiwei. Beautifully crafted, conceptually acute, poetically resonant, these works provide a concise overview of his concerns as an artist.”
In many ways deeply political, Ai Weiwei’s work explores the tension in ideology, what he describes “as being between a more interesting state of mind and a more dreadful state of mind. The artist should be for the interesting against the dreadful.”1 Using a variety of formal languages with both traditional and innovative methods of production, Ai links the past with the present and explores the geopolitical, economic and cultural realities affecting the world with humour and compassion. Described as “the best artist to have appeared since the Cultural Revolution in China”2, his work can be seen as a succession of gestures critiquing both commodity fetishism and the society in which he lives.
Among numerous international projects planned for next year are exhibitions of Ai’s photographic works at the Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland, and his architectural projects at Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria.
From 12 May to 26 June 2011, Somerset House will present Ai Weiwei’s first
outdoor public sculpture installation in London. Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads
will be the first ever contemporary art installation to go on display in the historic courtyard of Somerset House. The monumental installation will comprise 12 bronze animal heads, re-creations of the traditional Chinese zodiac sculptures which once adorned the fountain of Yuanming Yuan, an imperial retreat in Beijing.
Image:Ai Weiwei Colored Vases 2006 Neolithic vases (5000-3000 BC) and industrial paint 51 pieces, dimensions variable
Courtesy the artist
Updated Information on Ai Weiwei arrest can be found at www.freeaiweiwei.org.
There is also a petition started by Solomon R Guggenheim Foundation
which you can sign HERE
