The name itself sounds like a cry of anguish...
Ay! Way! Way!
He has every reason for anguish but he's not crying, at least not in
public. In public he exhibits two perspectives: on one hand, a calm
defiance of the monolithic, arthritic, despotic regime hidden behind
his country's mask of modern progress. And on the other, a display of
meticulously crafted
objets d'art, mixing the materials of
venerable ancient Chinese artefacts with irreverent attitudes of
surrealism and conceptualism - shades of Duchamp, Magritte, Carl Andre
and all.
The most valuable and moving piece in the exhibition, for me,
is not an art object but a video: an effective and affecting piece of
investigative journalism. It was filmed in the aftermath of the 2008
Sichuan earthquake
and documents the discovery, due to stubborn and painstaking
examination of the ruins by Ai Weiwei and others, that the instant
collapse of several schools in which hundreds of children died, was due
to local authorities'
corruption
leading to lax building regulations and shoddy construction. Weiwei's
response to the scandal was to buy tons of the mangled rebar, the
"'useless bones of all those schools that collapsed". In his studio,
workers pounded hundreds of the twisted metal bars straight and kept
hammering even when he was imprisoned by the government for several
months
After his release Wewei created, with 38 tons of those
rusted rods, a respectful and defiant memorial to those lost children,
titled
Straight, of which he has said:
The tragic reality of today is reflected in
the true plight of our spiritual existence. We are spineless and cannot
stand straight.
The problem I had when looking at this...installation...yes, that was
exactly the problem. It had become an 'Installation' because of
where
it is shown: in a prestigious art institution. So the whole point of
the memorial- its history, its meaning - has become merely a caption for
an art object and its viewers are the people who go to art exhibitions.
Does this make sense? Not to me. What would make sense would be if
Straight
was laid out in a public place in Sechuan where the children died, for
example, or in front of government buildings in Beijing. But of course
the Chinese authorities would never permit this. So the next best
locations for exhibiting it would be...Well, you can see what I'm
getting at.
I like Ai Wewei, I respect his integrity, his courage,
patience and humour, his defiant stoicism in the face of the mental and
physical hardships, injustice and repression he (and thousands of his
unseen, unsung compatriots) have suffered, are suffering. I just wish he
was as bold, unconventional and resourceful in his choice of venues for
the display of his protest-works as he is in protesting.
Peering down into the several mini-tableaux which reproduce,
half life-size, the actual cell in which Wewei was detained, along with
the Chinese guards who watched his every moment, I couldn't help
wondering, again, if this was the relevant place to show them. In the
art gallery context they were reduced to rather ironic toy-scapes, even
when you had read the explanation.
As for Ai Wewei's
objets d'art in the exhibition, I
must admit to being underwhelmed. The joke in this one is that the
object lifting its legs at tradition is made from a traditional Qing Dynasty table. Get it?
Below, I think it's the caption which is the conceptual
artwork rather than the cute paint-streaked vases. Those private
collectors, did they buy because their vase was a Weiwei or because it
was Han Dynasty or Neolithic? And did the price reflect one or the
other? And
who is taking the mickey of whom?
The bicycle chandelier is rather beautiful, in the way that a
twenty layer birthday cake made of sugar cobwebs would be beautiful but
even the Chinese bicycle symbolism doesn't save it from being
instantly forgotten (by me) once I've seen/eaten it.
Before I end this grumpy review, I want to apologise for it
to Ai Wewei even though he surely won't be reading it. I'm truly glad
that the Royal Academy is exhibiting his work, he deserves
encouragement and support from every quarter, public and private. I
sincerely wish him well and I hope that his country's leaders will come
to their senses, in his lifetime, and recognize what he, and all the
other exceptional individuals they have been tormenting and repressing,
could do for China if they would only be given the freedom which is
every human's right.
