The Ai Weiwei exihibition in the Berlin Martin-Gropius-Bau is titled "Evidence" and has been described as a retrospective. However, it is a collection of most recent works of varying quality, all with a more less or less political content directed against the Chinese government. Some of them document his own imprisonment (there's a walk-in installation of his prison cell and a selection of objects from the prison like his handcuffs and clothes hangers), others imply certain events like the Sichuan earthquake (the twisted iron rods) or the conflict with Japan concerning the Diaoyu islands (a large marmor relief depicting the islands' topography). Some of this I find quite blatant, but his best works are those that have a strong aesthetic appeal and are not so easily deciphered: the 6000 wooden stools or the hanging bicyles installation.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment