The Ai Weiwei: Roots exhibition, running from 2 October to 2 November 2019, boasts a series of monumental sculptural works in iron, cast from giant tree roots sourced in Brazil. Ai Weiwei created each piece working with local artisans and communities across Brazil, visiting Trancoso in the east to specifically locate roots and trunks from the endangered Pequi Vinagreiro tree, typically found in the Bahian rainforest. Elements of these rare tree roots, some of which could be over a thousand years old, were then painstakingly moulded, conjoined and then cast to create striking compositions and bold forms that reflect their Brazilian heritage. While some resemble great jungle beasts or fantastical creatures, such as the three and four-legged works Fly and Level, others including Party and Martin (all 2019) consist of shattered, exploded root forms radiating outwards from a central nexus.
The artworks’ depiction of the state of ‘uprootedness’ mirrors not only the artist’s peripatetic existence after being allowed to leave China in 2015 but also the plight of the refugees he has spent the last few years documenting, as well as the various indigenous populations that rely on the trees and forests of Brazil for their habitats and sustenance. Moreover, the deforestation and purging of peoples and resources relates to previous bodies of work produced by Ai and to the current political realities of many countries, including his native China.
The material employed in making the Roots series, cast iron covered in a patina of orange rust, likewise responds to ancient cultures and man’s first tools for tree felling and woodworking. Furthermore, the methods used to rank amongst a traditional, largely bygone way of life that has been usurped and upended by industrialisation and relentless modernisation, illustrating how progress can often come at the expense of cultural and societal well-being.
In contrast to these heavy, land-bound sculptures are floating figures, clouds and dream-like vignettes. Ai has been producing delicate sculptures from stretched silk over bamboo armatures for the past five years, employing a group of Chinese kite makers based in Weifang. Ai’s kites refer back to a mythological encyclopaedia of monsters and creatures known as Shan Hai Jing (the Classic of Mountains and Seas) that also pre-dated Christianity, which depicts fantastical hybrids of chimera, gorgons, unicorns, dragons and griffins. Alongside this bestiary, Ai has added personal and childhood symbols, as well as references back to his own works.
Finally, the show ends with a development of Ai’s experimentation using LEGO bricks. These new wall-based works feature politically-charged, pixelated renderings of a refugee boat refused docking at Lampedusa following two weeks at sea, the front page of the Mueller report into Russian interference in the 2016 US Presidential election, as well as a deconstructed symbol of the contentious protests of Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Posted by hateruma_yaeyama on 2019-10-02 10:39:13