2006
2005
2004
Fiberglass, clothes and newspaper, Life-size
2003
“Forever” Bicycles comprises parts of 42 bicycles of the “Forever” brand, a classic reconfiguration of utilitarian articles bordering on abstraction. The interplay of these dramatic circles and lines change constanly from different perspectives.
*Map Of China
Tieli wood, height 120cm
The borders of the People’s Republic of China are given an extra dimension in this three-dimensional walnut wood rendering – an imagined geological construct that echoes the manufactured political boundaries of regular two-dimensional mapping.
Installation of fragments of stone sculpture from Northern Qi period (550 BC - 77 AD)
A reverse take on the looting and vandalism inflicted on Buddhist sculptures, most prized for their exquisite heads, this work comprises the oft-overlooked feet and pedestals of ten sculptures. Collectively, these exquisitely sculpted fragments form an ecclectic and intriguing gathering of double displacement. Not only are the feet haunted by loss of identity separate from body and head, but pedestals are also robbed of their ritual bearing function.
*Crossed Beds
Tieli wood
The wood from which this sculpture is made was taken from a destroyed temple. The scale and symmetry of the beds intimates some unspecified ritual or symbolic function.
2002
Chrystal and scaffolding, height 6 metres
Conjoined like a pearl in an oyster is the first hint of the building’s existence: steel scaffolds and a chrystal chandelier. Dislocated and amplified to spectacular effect, the glittering pieces of this custom-made, five metre tall chandelier becomes a looming, enveloping fantasy.
*Table and Beam
Table and Pillar
These Qing Dynasty tables were taken apart and reconstructed to accomodate the beam and pillar. These enigmatic, powerful intersections appear to arise out of the energy and dynamics of matter and motion.
2001
2000
*In Between
Built into the framework of a residential complex between the nineteenth and 20th floors, In Between is a literal symbiosis between art and architecture. Identical in material and color to the concrete floor from which it emerges, the house-shaped sculpture is tilted at an angle , playfully raising the question of alternative axes and spaces in which contemporary life takes place.
*Concrete
Height 12 metres
This sculpture consists of a C-shaped concrete structure set upon an ascending platform. A rigidly linear stream leads up to the mouth of the sculpture, and the sound of running water is audible from inside the sculpture.
Bronze, steel and gold
Diameter 19 cm
A common but dwindling source of fuel in northern China, these hive-shaped coal cylinders are emblems of traditional energy in yet-unmodernized homes and communities. Cast in bronze and set out in large-scaledisplay, the ubiquitous, mundane objects become a lustrous study in circular form.
1997-2000
*Furniture series
Furniture, Qing dynasty (1644-1911)
The Furniture series chalenges the predetermined class and ritual functions of Ming and Qing Dynasty furniture. The style, proportion, and type of wood of classical Chinese furniture are long established factors that, put together, naturally imply the entire context within which the furniture existed, including the owner’s social status, the piece’s function (often strictly ritual or ornamental), and how it might be situated in relation to other furniture. Such furniture was ingeniously constructed without use of a single nail and could be taken part piece by piece, emphasizing harmony with the elements down to the tiniest of details.
Despite the alteration of the original furniture, the fundamental laws of construction are actually adhered to and employed in creating the new work of art by Ai Weiwei. Each piece is taken apart and the new piece constructed using the same technical principles of joining.
Stool, Table with Two Legs on the Wall, Slanted Table, Cornered Table (1997)
Table with Three Legs, Tables at Right Angles, Crossed tables, (1998)
1993-2000
*Whitewash
Clay urns dating from the late Stone age (10,000-4000 BC) and industrial paint
Dating from 4000 years ago, the clay vessels used in Whitewash represent the evolution of early design and function. The designs painted on them are among the first known instances of art. The artist has painted a selected number of vessels white, obscuring their artistic and historical symbolism and transforming them into abstract ciphers.
*Still Life
Installation of stone tools dating from late Stone Age to Shang Dynasty (10,000 BC – 11 AD)
Still Life is composed of 3600 stone tools including axes, chisels, and spools datingfrom neolitic times which were collected over ten years and individually catalogued. The primitive, almost abstract objects embody both the crudeness and functionality of civilisation’s earliest instruments. Placed together in large-scale display, these elemental shapes symbolize the elementary lifestyles and already burgeoning power of early men.
1997
72 black-and-white photographs
This work comprises 72 photographs of a moon eclipse which occurred during the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Chinese festival where the moon is traditionally full. This ironically timely confluence of science and superstition is documented through these 72 photographs taken every 5 minutes through the eclipse cycle.
1996
*Blue-and-White
Replica in Qing style, Qianlong period (1736-1795)
Various dimensions
As with all artifacts, imitations of these prized blue-and-white porcelain vessels abounded. Perfectly constructed they could only be exposed by carbon-dating. It is these assumptions of authenticity and value – aesthetic, cultural, and monetary – that the Blue-and-White works play upon.
Blue-and-White dragon bowls, Qing Dynasty, Kangxi perios (1662 – 1722), diameter 19 cm
This pair of bowls litteraly goes “under the hammer.” In this classic iconclastic gesture, Ai Weiwei confers a new status on these bowls; their shattered fragments take on a very different artistic import as the subject of these photographs.
1995-2003
*Study of Perspective (Reichstag, Viking Line, Eiffet Tower, White House, Tiananmen Square
Series of photographs
The Tiananmen Square, the Eiffel Tower and the White House are among the familiar attractions serving as symbolic backdrops for the Study of Perspective series. They document the artist performing his gesture against various political and cultural landmarks.
1995
Series of three black-and-white photographs
The artist makes a rare personal appearance to shatter a genuine Han artifact. In this photographic documentation of events occuring in less then a second, a vase two thousand years old is simultaniously smashed and acquires new artistic significance.
1994
Clay sculpture dating from Tang dynasty (618-907) and glass bottle
Within this traditional repository of peripahetic desire and fantasy materializes an elegantly poised stone courtesan over one thousand years old. This work humorously combines symbols of two of man’s chief intoxications while playing off the opposites of unique artifact and disposable object, painstaking craftwork and mass production, antiquity and modernity.
*Seven Frames
Black-and-white photographs
The ramrod-straight stance of a uniformed sentry in Tiananmen Square is displaced into seven continuous frames, breaking up his visage of authority into a linear progression of temporal images.
Black-and-white photograph
This surreal scene on a summer’s day in Tiananmen Square ranks in the annals of contemporary Chinese modernity – the young woman matter-of-factly hoisting her skirt, the unseen expression on the driving spectator’s face, and Mao’s benevolent visage bestowing the new generation with indeterminate blessings.
*Han Dynasty Urn with Coca-Cola Logo
Urn and paint, Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-8AD)
This branded Han Dynasty vessel is one of the earliest works employing antiques. Artefact and modern marketing propaganda meet in a single utilitarian form, a tongue-in-cheek comment on temporal and aesthetic dislocation.
1989
*Fur
1987
1986
Textile and Holzbox
1985
*Vilion
*Hanging Man
Bronnen:
“Ai Weiwei – Works: Beijing 1993-2003”, Timezone 8 Ltd, China 2003
ArtZineChina.com
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