You know its going to be good when you are searched before you even get into the exhibition. Ai Weiwei at the RA has to be the best exhibition of the year. Thought provoking and intelligent with meanings at many different levels. The harder the Chinese authorities try to shut him up the harder he comes back at them. Tear down his purpose build studio and work shops and he turns the rubble into art, lock him up and he turns the experience into massive steel boxes depicting his time in captivity.
The installation that had the most impact was ‘Straight’, 90 tonnes of re-bar salvaged from the remains of collapsed buildings (many of which were schools) following the massive earthquake in Shanghai. Thousands of children died crushed by school buildings that were made out of substandard materials. The labour that Weiwei’s team put into straighten the piles of twisted metal was incredible.
Did he or didn’t he?
Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn.
Was it a fake or the real deal?
Great day out in London, which looks great at this time of the year….
garageceramics 