That Heavy Art

90 TONS OF REBAR STACKED IN UNDULATING FASHION recall seismic waves. On each side of the room stretch a list of names: 5,000 students whose lives had been taken by the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. From the rubble where the poorly-built school had collapsed, Ai Weiwei and his team collected mangled steel rods, straightening each one by hand, and assembling them into a field of rusting metal. The installation, entitled Straight, is peaceful, poignant and powerful. It commemorates the lives lost while presenting a symbolic act of making what's crooked straight again.

Such is the nature of Ai Weiwei's art, with over two decades of it brought together for a first major UK exhibition. Inspired by Marcel Duchamp, Ai Weiwei works with readymade objects to create, assemble or simply present challenging themes through the condition of Chinese life. Souvenir of Shanghai is made with concrete, brick and woodwork taken from the site where the artist's studio was demolished by authorities in 2011. Tree comprises bolted parts of different trees, alluding to the modern Chinese nation of ethnically diverse groups. Bicycle Chandelier illustrates the bike's fallen/risen status as a chief mode of transport now a luxury afforded only by a few.

The works inspire awe for their scale and shock value; the exhibit also shows pieces like Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn, which features three consecutive photographs of the artist dropping an urn, possibly from the Han Dynasty. But past the striking first impressions, the artworks provoke thought or inspiration. "The message should be carried through knowledge, not just visual." explained Ai Weiwei, well-known to have been many times held or beaten by authorities for expressing ardent, provocative messages.

Appropriately so, there was no social media censorship at the exhibition. Where museums and galleries nowadays tend to prohibit the social sharing of exhibit assets, Ai Weiwei's art is hashtag friendly. "In today’s condition, I do not think that anybody can stop the exchange of ideas." says the artist.

With ideas of all sorts cluttering online and offline spaces, the challenge for most of us is not perhaps in exchanging ideas, but in dedicating more energy towards ideas worth exchanging.

Ai Weiwei at the Royal Academy of Arts, September 19 - December 13, 2015. royalacademy.org.uk Photos by Lady San Pedro.

AI WEIWEI IS CHAPTER TWO OF CHRISTMAS TRIO:
A THREE-PART STORY FEATURING SOME OF LONDON'S BIGGEST AUTUMN EXHIBITIONS.

VIEW ALL STORIES