Hasta La Ideas

The Lisson Gallery in London are preparing an exhibition of work by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, who is still missing after being detained by authorities at Beijing airport on 3 April.

Above: Moon Chest, 2008. Huanghuali wood, 81 pieces, 320 x 160 x 80 cm. Image is copyright Mori Art Museum, courtesy of the artist

Planned with the artist before his disappearance, the exhibition will present key sculptures and video projects including his Moon Chest series (above) and Monumental Junkyard (below).

Above: Monumental Junkyard, 2007. Marble, 40 pieces each 6 x 213 x 91 cm, 20 pieces each 6 x 210 x 80cm. Image is copyright Glucksman Gallery, courtesy of the artist

More information about Ai Weiwei’s disappearance can be found here.

Above: Marble Chair, 2008. Marble, 120 x 56 x 46 cm. Image courtesy of the artist

The exhibition will be open 13 May-16 July.

Above: Beijing: The Second Ring, 2005. Video, January 14 – February 11 2005, 1h 6min. Image courtesy of the artist

More about Ai Weiwei on Dezeen »

Above and top: Colored Vases, 2006. Neolithic vases (5000-3000 BC) and industrial paint. 51 pieces, dimensions variable. Image courtesy of the artist

The information that follows is from the Lisson Gallery:

Ai Weiwei

Lisson Gallery is proud to present a major exhibition of work by Ai Weiwei. From 13 May to 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 (until 2 May 2011), the show will be his first at Lisson Gallery and will be held across both Bell Street spaces.

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.” 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” , 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.

The selection of key works from the past six years was agreed with the artist at the beginning of this year.

Ai Weiwei was detained by authorities in Beijing while trying to board a flight to Hong Kong on 3 April and has not been seen or heard from since. Lisson Gallery, along with all his supporters in the UK and around the world, is alarmed by the detention of Ai Weiwei and greatly concerned for his safety.

Updated news and information can be found at www.freeaiweiwei.org. Please sign a petition started by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and signed by leading members of the international arts community here.

The studio and supporters of Ai Weiwei are determined to proceed with his planned projects. We hope you will join us to see and celebrate the work of one of the most significant living artists, cultural figures, and champions of human rights in China and worldwide.

About the Artist

Ai Weiwei was born in 1957 in Beijing, China, where he lives and works. Solo exhibitions include Stiftung DKM, Duisburg (2010); Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland (2010); Arcadia University Gallery, Glenside (2010); Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2009); Haus der Kunst, Munich (2009); Three Shadows Photography Art Center, Beijing (2009); Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, Cambelltown Arts Center, Sydney (2008); Groninger Museum, Groningen (2008). Group exhibitions include the São Paulo Biennial (2010); Biennale Architecture, Venice (2008); Documenta 12, Kassel (2007) and Tate Liverpool (2007).

Dates:13 May – 16 July 2011
Opening Hours: Monday-Friday 10am-6pm, Saturday 11am-5pm
Location: 52-54 and 29 Bell Street, London, NW1 5DA

See also:

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Ai Weiwei at Albion Gallery	Artfarm by HHF Architects and Ai Weiwei	Sunflower Seeds 2010 by Ai Weiwei

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has covered the floor of the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern in London with more than 100 million individually handmade replica sunflower seeds.

Top image is by Marcus Leith & Andrew Dunkley

Commissioned for the The Unilever Series, the installation invites visitors to walk over the porcelain pieces, which cover 1000 square metres of the hall.

Each seed was moulded, fired, hand-painted and fired again in the Chinese city of Jingdezhen over a two year period.

Photographs are copyright Tate Photography.

Above image is by Marcus Leith & Andrew Dunkley

Here’s some more information from Tate:

Tate Modern today unveils the latest commission in The Unilever Series, Sunflower Seeds, by the renowned Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. The sculptural installation appears at first to be a vast, flat landscape of sunflower seed husks, covering the east end of the Turbine Hall. Visitors are invited to walk across the surface of the work and discover that each seed is in fact a unique porcelain replica, one of over 100 million individually handmade objects which have been specially produced for the commission.

This is the largest work Ai has made using porcelain, one of China’s most prized exports, with which he has previously created imitation fruit, clothes and vases. Although they look identical from a distance, every seed is different, and far from being industrially produced, ‘readymade’ or found objects, they have each been intricately handcrafted by skilled artisans. All of them have been produced in the city of Jingdezhen, which is famed for its production of Imperial porcelain. Each ceramic seed was moulded, fired at 1300°C, hand-painted and then fired again at 800°C. Over the course of two years, over 100 million of these were made, forming a mass of objects that weighs over 150 metric tonnes, covering 1000 square metres of the Turbine Hall. The casual act of walking across their surface contrasts powerfully with the precious nature of the material and the effort of its production.

For Ai, sunflower seeds – a common Chinese street snack shared by friends – carry personal associations from the Cultural Revolution (1966-76). While individuals were stripped of personal freedom, propaganda images depicted Chairman Mao as the sun and the mass of people as sunflowers turning towards him. Yet Ai remembers the sharing of sunflower seeds as a gesture of human compassion, providing a space for pleasure, friendship and kindness during a time of extreme poverty, repression and uncertainty. There are also contemporary resonances in the work, with its combination of mass production and traditional craftsmanship inviting us to look more closely at the ‘Made in China’ phenomenon and the geopolitics of cultural and economic exchange.

Sunflower Seeds is a sensory and immersive installation, which visitors can touch, walk on and listen to as the seeds shift beneath their feet. However, the tactile, engaging nature of this work also encourages us to consider highly pertinent questions about ourselves and our world. What does it mean to be an individual in today’s society? Are we insignificant or powerless unless we act together? What do our increasing desires, materialism and number mean for the future? Ai Weiwei has said “From a very young age I started to sense that an individual has to set an example in society. Your own acts and behaviour tell the world who you are and at the same time what kind of society you think it should be.”

Sheena Wagstaff, Chief Curator, Tate Modern said: “Ai Weiwei has created a truly unique experience for visitors to this year’s Unilever Series. The sense of scale and quality of craftsmanship achieved in each small perfectly formed sunflower seed is astonishing. In trying to comprehend their sheer quantity, Ai provokes a multitude of ideas, from the way we perceive number and value, to the way we engage with society at large.”

Paul Polman, Chief Executive Officer, Unilever said: “We are proud of our long relationship with Tate Modern. It is a partnership that has produced some spectacular commissions in the Turbine Hall over the last ten years. Ai Weiwei’s imaginative and thoughtful approach to the eleventh commission is very much in this tradition. We hope that his work will bring pleasure to all who see it.”

Ai Weiwei was born in 1957 in Beijing, China, where he lives and works. He has exhibited internationally, including recent solo shows at Mori Art Museum, Tokyo and Haus der Kunst, Munich, and has contributed to many group exhibitions around the world, including at the São Paulo Biennial; Documenta 12, Kassel, Germany and Tate Liverpool, UK. Ai also founded the design company Fake Design and co-founded the China Art Archives and Warehouse in Beijing. His work is held in many major collections, including Tate Collection (Table and Pillar 2002).

The Unilever Series: Ai Weiwei is curated by Juliet Bingham, Curator, Tate Modern, supported by Kasia Redzisz, Assistant Curator, Tate Modern.

The Unilever Series of annual commissions was launched in 2000 when Tate Modern opened with Louise Bourgeois’s I Do, I Undo, I Redo. The Spanish artist Juan Muñoz was the second artist commissioned in 2001 with Double Bind, and the first British artist to be commissioned was Anish Kapoor with Marsyas in 2002. Olafur Eliasson’s Weather Project illuminated the Turbine Hall in 2003 and Bruce Nauman’s mesmerising sound installation Raw Materials opened in October 2004. In 2005 Rachel Whiteread created her installation EMBANKMENT, followed by Carsten Höller’s interactive spiralling slides Test Site in 2006. In 2007 Doris Salcedo’s subterranean sculpture Shibboleth ran the length of the building, dramatically breaking open the floor of the Turbine Hall. In TH.2058 in 2008, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster transformed the Turbine Hall into a futuristic shelter filled with bunk beds and gargantuan sculptures, while in 2009 Miroslaw Balka created the eerie How It Is, a vast steel chamber with a pitch black interior.

Unilever’s sponsorship of The Unilever Series at Tate Modern began in 2000 and has been extended until 2012. The Unilever Series has inspired over 24 million visitors to Tate Modern. The commission is also the basis for cultural exchange thanks to the success of The Unilever Series: turbinegeneration. Launched in 2009, turbinegeneration is an online education project linking schools across the globe. 30 countries will be taking part in the project by 2012. The Unilever Series and the associated education programme reflect Unilever’s commitment to inspirational and thought-provoking art.

The Unilever Series: Ai Weiwei
Sunflower Seeds
Tate Modern, Turbine Hall
12 October 2010 – 2 May 2011
Admission free

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Ai Weiwei at Albion Gallery	Artfarm by HHF Architects and Ai Weiwei	Tsai Residence by HHF architects and Ai Weiwei